Shopping

Dedicated to: The Art of Haggling

A key skill to learn while you are in China is haggling. Haggling is everything in China. Items that are "haggleble" range from cell phones, clothing, trinkets, to food (mostly fruits). The importance of haggling will determine whether your stay in China will make or break your wallet. Even if you are not sure if something can be haggled, try anyways. Chances are, if the answer is "no," you can still ask if there is a discount, because merchants won't let the buyers know if there is one unless you ask.

Now, unfortunately, haggling can't be done everywhere. For example, last weekend several friends and I visited one of the many shopping malls that litter the perimeter of our study abroad college. The one that we decided to visit consisted of seven floors and a movie theater. The reason haggling isn't allowed in most malls is because the stores within the malls are actual retail stores that can be found in the US. Sephora, Nike, Armani, are just a few examples of what kind of stores are exist in these malls. Interestingly, the higher the floor you go, the pricier the items are. Within 3-4 hours, we only managed to cover four floors. By "covering" I mean walking by the shops and only going into the ones we had to look in u_u In any case, I everyone had fun and managed to buy some clothing/gifts on the basement floor, which I believe was probably one of the coolest floors. The basement floor sold a great deal of awesome T's and shoes at a decent price.

There are still some malls I need to go visit before leaving Shanghai, but until then, my next post will actually be about the Fabric Market, which truly was a one-of-a-kind experience. Tailored clothing = crazydelicious!