While 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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
copyright infringement. Many products do not
even live up to the standards of the names they carry, which brings us
to our next subject.
