Travel: Shopping in China :)

Alhamdulillah! Got back safe and sound on Friday afternoon...

I don't want to drag the post, so I am going to go about it in point form :))

The Food

-Delicious.... NOT! Would not dare try it as nothing looked clean or edible.

-Every single person doing some form of work had a jar of (green???) tea with them to go last them the day. Some had weird little things floating in their teas... and yes, the jars were see-through :)

-We found a superb Turkish restaurant: Sultan Restaurant. It had an amazing menu which would appeal to anybody as it had a very large variety. Oh and it was halal, very clean, and the atmosphere was beautiful... very Turkish/Ottoman decor. :) I must add that the food I had there was the best I have ever had in my lifetime.. We ate there everyday.

-We ate once a day at the restaurant and snacked in the morning on some of the stuff I took with me from Australia. :)

-If you plan to go, I suggest you take things like cheese, olives, biscuits, crackers, etc. with you. Seriously, you might like Asian food, but I wouldn't want you to get sick! So don't risk it. Nuff said!

-Don't expect non-flat Coke anywhere. My Coke bubbles need to burst and splatter on my face lol. My drink needs to be ice cold in warm weather. They drink everything warm.. nothing is ever really cool and all their Coke including Maccas is slightly flat. Ewww! and ewwww!

Soooo full after eating an amazing chicken shish at Sultan Restaurant... just behind some of the best hotels and high class stores in Guangzhou.

Some octopus kebabs.. sunno what the other stuff is.. probably normal meat? no idea and don't care.. but I couldn't miss the octos :)

A shot from Sultan Restaurant. I wanted to show you guys the rooms behind the hubster. They have I think 6 rooms like the one behind him. All clad with divans (sofas) and a table set for six. Each 'room' has drapes coming down... a huge Ottomanesque oil painting on the wall, a grand chandellier above... they are like 'private rooms' but without doors. :) You feel special LOL

Again from Sultan Restaurant.... The walls are adorned with more oil paintings and Ottomanesque tiles... A must go-see for anyone who visits Guangzhou City in China.

The Crowd / Streets

-I am happy to say, even though it was still crowded, it was not as crowded as I feared. This was thanks to the 16th Asian Games (Olympics). There were some areas and times of the day where it was extremely crowded, but still bearable.

-The streets/roads are very clean.

-Flowers everywhere... on the bridges, walls... roads.... a very very veeeeeeeeery green city!

-There were like 3-4 bridges... one above the other (for traffic).

-There is a person/cleaner every few metres to keep the streets clean. Hardly any trash cans... so I was surprised at how clean everywhere was until I noticed the street cleaners. :)

The weather was so beautiful during the daytime... sunshine every day... One man told us that during his 12 year stay in China, this was the first time he saw the sky blue... Apparently some sort of bomb was thrown into the sky to ward off the dark clouds so that it is nice and clear blue during the 16th Asian Games.

High-rise buildings and towers everywhere! My hubby fell in love with this lyrebird made of flowers so he insisted on getting many photos taken here. :)

This cute little Chinese girl was sooo gorgeous and blended in so well with the background that we could not resist a snapshot. She felt a little shy being photographed by us, but as soon as we started to walk away, she gave awesome poses to her parents' camera. :)

See the two uni students holding up the OK-thumbs up sign? They will be holding those signs up in every street corner and traffic light for the entire Asian Games (58 days or something I've been told?). It was said that the sign means "may your life be a-okay.. have a happy life where everything is thumbs up"... something like that anyway.... but soooo many uni students paid to do nothing but hold up that sign in their assigned corner every day. :)

Another day... but he is still obsessed with that lyrebird... but it is gorgeous is it not? :)

My hubby and the gigantic buildings... Nobody to be seen because in this area, nobody starts work before 10am! At 9:30am you see everyone walking to work like soldiers... then at 10am nobody as they are all where they should be and getting ready to open shop... Some areas open up around 8am, but they sleep on the steps, on the floor, at the desk, or whereever they can find until around noon or until someone asks them something... they are active around 11:30am.. then when the clock hits noon they are busy eating in the middle of their shops/stalls... then their most active times are after about 1:30pm to 6pm. Very different...

The People

-OMG - No offence!

-If I ever plan to travel to China again, I will think twice about the length of my stay!

-Spitting heaps of mucus filled spit (sorryyyy) right in the middle of the road, on the stairs, on the escalators...

-Burping in your face...

-Knocking you out of the way as if it's normal. :)

-Blowing out their nose into the air... I mean no tissues, no handkerchiefs.. nothing... press one finger to close one nostril, then blow out anything and everything that exists in the other nostril... one guy did this for 10 whole hours on the plane back to Australia... so I tried to be asleep most of the way... at least until each time I was awoken by his snot blow session.

-I love how when they are going to present you with money change, or anything like paper, cards, etc, they hold it with both hands, bow their head and present it to you with such respect...

-Some are soooooooooooooooo sweet... too sweet.... and some are not... I think this is probably due to the lack of communication/English.

-Majority of the people (sellers) do not speak English... not even a word... those who can speak only speak those words which they have memorised... if you say anything different they will just keep repeating the same thing :)

-They stare!!!! Too too toooooo much! I was expecting it, but some went too overboard! When I notice some, I would just turn and cheerfully say Ni-Hao (hello) and they would respond back, smile and walk away :) Some would poke the person next to them, point at me, say something, and continue to stare LOL and SOME would walk down a step on the never ending stairs on the roads, turn back and stare, take another step and turn back and stare again... I was almost gonna attack a man for exaggerating the stare thingy so much. :) I have a threshold to my tolerance too you know. :))) Then he finally walked away when I yelled and make hand gestures at him haha

The Shopping

-OMG OMG OMG!!!

-Seriously OMG!

-I want to buy everything!

-They have very high class stores and very cheap stuff too. So you don't just say "made in China... rubbish". Some are really top notch.

-Shopping in China isn't what we... who have never seen China.... expect it to be!

-If you buy wholesale... say 1000 pieces of the exact same product, you will get it cheap. :) But who needs 1000 pairs of the exact same knickers in the same colour? :)

-If you buy one piece of one item, you will not get it cheap... especially if it is really good quality...

-Personal shopping is great, but seriously go with heaps of cash, cos you will regret it :P I bought myself a couple brand bags... One imitation and one original... Originals purchased from original designer stores are cheaper than what you would find at the same designer store in Australia. I couldn't buy too many as Australian customs no longer allows a passenger to bring down more than 3-4 pieces of designer/knock off items (3-4 bags, 3-4 pairs of shoes, 3-4 clothing items... etc) into the country. So you need to be careful as they will all be confiscated from you and you may face hefty fines. I have heard that some people were lucky, but seriously not worth the risk! I purchased some scarves for myself also and a few t-shirts for the hubster. That's about it... You have 30kg baggage allowance when leaving Australia, but only 20kg allowance when leaving China.. So yeah... :( and your bags/weight get checked like 3 times until you board the plane! Someone paid $1000 for an extra 10-15 kg... so not worth it!

There is an entire high-rise building dedicated to designer brands... Even the store cleaners look like store managers lol

This is a scene from Beizhing Lu (Beijing Road)... Very much like our Melbourne's Swanston Street Walk... No cars allowed... just shops and people... It's open until 10pm. There are also "underground shops". They aren't literally underground, but when you get to Beizhing Lu, men with photos of designer products surround you, trying to lure you to their hidden warehouses/shops. We told a few to buzz off then let in to one... Boy do I regret it... The only place I got ripped off... A woman can get carried away you know! :)) The standard stores throughout Beizhing Lu are fine. Some good quality things priced accordingly, some cheap products priced according to their quality. We did buy a few non-branded items from different stores... it was quite fun actually :)) Very different system of selling products :)

This is also from Beizhing Lu. I was dressed up a little as it was Day 1 of Eid. We went out for a nice dinner then hit Beizhing Lu for some "sight-seeing" and shopping with the hubster. :) This is a small shrine kind of thing, but we just barely got this photo as everyone was standing around to take photos. Some just jump in when others are taking photos... so a bit was cut off :P

We are towards the end of Beizhing Lu... it is a very long walk, so we turned back half way LOL hey I had heels on! Did not expect to go shopping at night :) He looks dumbfounded :)

Now here is something else... If you take a close look, you will notice all the shoes on the fountain behind me. I am a shoe freak, which is why I had to have a shot taken here... however, the shoes... now there are different types of shopping in China... some places are specific to certain items only. For example, one town is full of shoe shops/plazas. One town all bags and leather accessories... One for just clothing... One town just gifts and jewellery... One for just electronics etc ect... So you have an area as big as a suburb just shops... that cater for certain industries only. So if you go alone, do not speak Chinese, do not know anyone in China, you may be in some trouble. Anyhow... back to the shoes.... the plazas here made me go out of my mind.... super crazy gorgeous shoes! and soooooooo many of them... I swear I coud have easily purchased 50 pairs! They were irresistable... BUT I couldn't buy even one pair because this place is apprently for order/wholesale only... so I was required to order approx. 500 pairs in the exact same shoe style and colour. :( Not happy Jan!

The Touristic Sites

-Unfortunately was not able to see anything except for the shops... I will inshaallah try and make the effort to go and see historic and touristic sites in China....some day in the future inshaallah.. really sad but it's very difficult to get around... especially when one cant find a taxi between 4pm-7pm...