Shopping tips Shanghai

It seems you can't move in Shanghai without stumbling across an opportunity to shop. Be it a market, a mega mall, a tourism complex, or the old style communist shopping opportunity.

If you prefer not to enter the melee of bargaining and you have a taste for luxury there are so many luxury malls around town that it is hard to imagine how they can all operate.

Tips

1.Most market places will show you prices on calculators so there is no problem with the language.
2.The happiest way to bargain is to decide in advance how much you are willing to pay, if you and the vendor are happy it is a good deal.
3.Sometimes in retrospect it seems churlish to have bargained hard over 50c.
4. If you would have happily paid $20 for something in your home town, don't miss out from getting into the moment of feeling as though you have to drive a bargain.
5. If you are of Western build, you might not find it that easy to buy clothes off the rack, the Fabric markets and having clothes tailor made may be the best thing.
6.Department stores have fixed prices, as do luxury stores in malls, it seems there is room to bargain in most other places.
7. I like to shop around before I start buying to get a sense for how much people are charging for things. Even the starting price can vary from stall to stall.
8. You really can get ridiculous instances of reduced prices, my friends bought a kite for 15 yuan that started at 200!
9. Rule of thumb is at the very least go for less than 50%, if you are brave go for a lot less.
10. the vendors will pursue you, if they really want to seel there goods.

I chose to do a guided shopping tour, as it has been a long time since I was in China and I figured I wouldn't mind a bit of guidance. The Shopping Tours Shanghai were highly recommended on Trip Advisor.

So I debated about whether or not to use the cost of the trip towards shopping, but in the end the reviews swayed me. I can recommend www.shoppingtoursshanghai.com. I did the best of everything tour.

We visited the fabric markets, pottery, jewellery, handbags and other stuff, plus DVDs. In between we also managed to have a good lunch at a Shanghai style restaurant.

See my other blog posting for location of various shops.

Joanne Kee
www.ceressolutions.com.au