Gifts for trip to China
 

I will be traveling from California to China and will be staying with my cousin and his wife (he is American, she is Japanese) in Shanghai for a few days before exploring the rest of the country. Any suggestions on a gift to bring? I would have brought some California wine, but with the airline restrictions on liquids I am looking for other ideas.

They can get basically anything they need. But prices for luxury goods can be a lot more than here in the US. Coach bags, name brand cosmetics, etc. iPhones and iPads. Just ask them.

thanks, rkkwan

any other ideas? anyone?

As your relatives are not Chinese, then you can bring pretty much whatever you want, as you won’t have the bad luck issues associated with some gifts (although I am guessing that in the Japanese culture, some gifts are also bad luck, you may already know about this).

Having been an expat myself for close to 20 years, when people come from visit from the US, I like it when they bring things which remind me of it, or things I can’t get here. You may first want to ask if there is anything they particularly need or want. While you can get many consumer goods in the PRC these days, there may be something they can’t find (like a cosmetic or even things like home hardware; I once had someone bring me smoke detectors as I could not find them anywhere in Switzerland) or just would like to have. When I first lived in Asia, you could not get bagels, and as an east coast gal, I missed them. So people used to bring me a dozen when they came to visit. (You can get Lender’s frozen now, but they ain't the same, and I would still welcome the bagels!) Local candies or other food specialties from home may be something they would appreciate. Some unique Japanese food item or tea which may be hard to get in the PRC. Jams, marmalades other preserved foods travel well. Books in English or Japanese may also be appreciated, as they can be expensive. I have had people bring me my local hometown paper, which I thought was a nice touch. (You know, the one which covers high school sports and has articles about zoning board meetings.) Think outside the branded box and you will probably come up with lots of local gift ideas.

If you are going to bring in electronics, like an Ipad, please take it out of the box and make it look like it is yours, otherwise you may pay duty on it. Send the warranty and other materials by mail to them.

Thanks for the great tips, Cicerone! Much appreciated.