Buyer
Beware in China
And Learning A little
About The Chinese Language ~ By Linda S.
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traveling to China, you will no doubt enjoy some shopping. In China's malls,
department stores and street vendors, you can find a wealth of wonderful,
quality products at very reasonable prices. The difference between malls
and street vendors is that on the streets, you can negotiate for the products
for sale. However many tourists visit China's street vendors not knowing
about certain scams and pitfalls that can occur while traveling. Read on
to find out more.
Fake Products
A Rolex for
only $25? A North Face jacket for only $40? Obviously these are not true
products, but imposters. Often, these labels are stolen or reproduced on
put on products to represent them as the originals. This stems from China's
large-scale problem of stealing intellectual property and copyright infringement.
Many products do not even live up to the standards of the names they carry,
which brings us to our next subject.
Substandard
Products
Many products
are manufactured with either no or inconsistent standards. This could include
substitution of cheaper materials, use of broken or faulty equipment, fake
materials or assembly by unskilled or untrained labor. Things I have purchased
have come apart while I was wearing them or have deteriorated far before
they should have. |
| Dashila
Street is one of the oldest pedestrian shopping districts in Beijing. The
street is located near Qianmen Dajie in Chongwen District. The street has
century old shops and is the site of the 300 year old Tongrentang Drug
Store and the famous silk shop, Ruifuxoyang. The streets are covered in
green tile and were once walled in to prevent thiefs from hiding. |
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Overpriced
Products
Let's face
it! Foreigner=big bucks. Many vendors see foreigners coming from a mile
away and will mark up their goods in an effort to expand their profit margin.
One thing I have come to know with my experiences as a shopper is that
if I see one vendor selling it, I will see it a few stalls down and in
adjacent stalls. Vendors know this. If you are really interested in something
and you want
to get a really
good deal for it, walk away. Chinese vendors will come come down to prices
they sell it to each other and sometimes, they will go even lower. They
will try to prevent you from leaving by lowering the price and sometimes
they will chase you down. Another alternative is to give them a price and
get them to meet you there. Vendors have come down 70% on a product that
I was interested in.
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| The Mid-Autumn
Festival in China celebrates Shu Yuan Zhang's attempt to overthrow the
corrupt Yuan Dynasty of the 14th century. He passed his plans to fellow
rebels in Mooncakes: sweetcakes filled with red beans and lotus seed paste.
Today the festival is a time for families to enjoy the moonlight. |
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Tips
for shoppers
*How do you
get the most out of what you buy? For clothing, examine seams, sleeves,
buckles and zippers. Check to make sure that the buttons are securely sewn
in.
*For shoes,
check the soles, seams and inserts. If there is dried glue oozing from
the seams or the inserts slip, ask for another pair.
*For electronics,
most vendors demonstrate that the product works before you buy it. Make
sure you ask for a demo if they don't volunteer one.
*Don't forget
to watch your pockets! In crowded shopping areas, it is easy to be distracted.
It is a pickpockets paradise.
*Put wallets
and passports in inside pockets or on the front of your body. Make sure
your bags of newly purchased goodies are not hanging open for passersby
to steal. Watch your cameras and backpack.
*Shopping in
China is a great experience! Just watch out for the few who don't follow
the rules and you will come home with great gifts and items! |
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The Beauty
and Complexity of Chinese Writing
Demystifying
the mystical art of Chinese writing
Thousands of
years ago, Chinese hunter-gatherers wished to record events and data. Unlike
their Western counterparts who used individual symbols to represent unique
sounds, the Chinese developed a very visual means of writing. They drew
pictoral representations to represent whole words and syllables. These
pictures became standardized, and evolved into a system of ideograms, or
characters. Throughout the ages, the ancients, the great leaders and more
recently, the common people, used this system to record anything from art
to daily transactions. Ancient artists used the written language, combined
with spoken rhymes, to create art not only pleasing to the ear, but also
to the eye. Today, 50,000 characters exist, although only about 5,000 characters
are in common use.
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Learning
to read Chinese
Because there
is no standard alphabet, Chinese is more work to learn how to read than
a language with a standard alphabet. What makes this process easier is
that there are so many ideograms commonly used. First, let me explain how
an ideogram is built. A stroke is mark made from a single line, though
it may not necessarily be a straight line. These strokes from a radical,
or an element that holds the main component of meaning in a word. Oftentimes,
they serve in either giving you a clue as to what the character means or
how to pronounce the word when you attach more strokes and radicals, but
exceptions apply. Radicals then make up characters, or a written symbol
of a spoken word. A character always represents exactly one syllable. Some
radicals can stand alone by themselves and be characters, other radicals
need complementary radicals in order to make characters. Usually you pair
up two characters to make a word, but they can be just one character or
more than two..Let's
start with a few radicals! You can take two of them and put them together
to make two-syllable words. These radicals can stand alone as characters
and put together make words that are easy to remember. For example:
fire (huo)
+ carriage (che) = train (huo che)
ox (niu) +
horse (ma) = beasts of burden (niu ma)
The next level
is to combine radicals into one-syllable words. These words can also combine
with other words into two or more syllables. Although these particular
radicals can stand alone as characters, combining make them turns them
into a new character. Notice the new character is pronounced differently
from the parent radicals. For example:
sun (ri) +
moon (yue) = bright (ming)
fire (huo)
+ fire (huo) = scorching (yan)
Although this
is over simplistic, it helps you get an idea of how Chinese radicals work.
For example, combine the mouth radical, kou, with the king radical, wang
and it means to appear, cheng, or to assume (form, color, etc.) , which
has nothing to do with either royalty or anything oral. However, another
meaning is to submit to a superior, a petition, and you will notice that
the mouth (oral) radical is in front of the king (superior) radical. |
| The earliest
Chinese characters from 1200B.C. to 1000B.C. were written on oracle
bones and the characters on the bones talked about hunting and the outcome
of court politics. |
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Traditional
Vs. Simplified characters
Some Chinese
characters can be up to 26 strokes, which takes several seconds to write
and can be inefficient if trying to write quickly. So, after mainland China
split from Taiwan and Hong Kong, they came up with their own system of
characters that is "simplified," meaning a character with a reduced number
of strokes. Traditional characters are used as a decorative item on mainland
China. However, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan still use traditional
characters when using Chinese characters.
Learning Chinese
can be a lot of work, but rest assured, you can do it. Flash cards are
the best way. You can either buy some or make some of your own. With a
lot of work and perseverance, you can soon be on your way to deciphering
this complex, beautiful and profound language.
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| Linda S.
The Virtual Niche Network http://www.VirtualNiche.net
(C) Copyright 2003 VirtualNiche.net. Maybe be reproduced as long as credit
is given to author and copyright owner. Linda S. is an American with
a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs, Spanish and the Chinese language.
She has studied at China's prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai and
toured several Chinese cities, homes, businesses and factories. She has
studied the culture, philosophy, history and written and spoken, as well
as modern and classical, Chinese for over 5 years. She currently lives
in Beijing, China. |
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