shopping & private guides Shanghai
 

We are hooking up with a tour in Shanghai and have 1 day before the tour. Should we get a private guide/translator to take us shopping? Is it worth it to have a blouse or jacket copied? I ma hesitating and maybe just want to see some neat areas and shops before the tour starts

When are you going and where are you staying? Are you English-speaking? You don't need a guide for shopping and sightseeing in Shanghai, my friends are on a United Vacations tour right now and also arrived a day early 3/21 and had a ball. If you let me know the Shanghai schedule of the tour, I can better help you.

Just got back from Shanghai 3/25/06. We started with a tour but I dont think you need one to go shopping. Ask the hotel desk to give you some suggestions and to write the name in Chinese and the hotel name in Chinese. Give to the cab driver and they will take you there. Cabs are very cheap in Shanghai and generally very honest but use the meter. We went to a flea=market type place where there was a large variety of booths selling knock off clothes watches, bags in Shanghai. Unfortunately I dont remember the name but the hotel concierge should be able to help with suggestions. Most of the merchants speak a little english. The trick is to bargain for everything Never Never pay the first price and be willing to walk away. They will always come back with a lower offer. Cash only preferable RMB but occassionally they will take US $1 bills.

Hope you have a great trip. We are ready to go back

We suggest Old Shanghai - it's a charming if somewhat (and not unpleasantly) touristy maze/mall of dozens of shops. Depends a little on what you want. You don't need a tour guide. A street map helps just so you can end up coming out on the side you went in. Some of the best shops are actually on the perifery and on the other side of the perimeter streets.

For eating make your way to the "center" (there's a Starbucks there) and look or ask for the 2-story landmark tea house that serves nothing but dumplings - NOT TO BE MISSED - they are the best in the world. Anyone should be able to direct you and at lunchtime you'll know by the line at the door.

Bargaining: start at 1/2 price.

Have fun!

The Knock off market is great, but the gov't will close it in 2 months.
M

If you are a non-Chinese and you start your bargaining at 1/2 the asked price, you will definitely end up paying at least double what you could have gotten it for.
Start at no more than 1/6th the asked price. If you speak a fair bit of Chinese, start at 1/10th.

The Old Town shopping area struck us as an overpriced tourist trap - go to the nearby Dongtailu street market, just to the west of the Old Town shops (easy to locate with a tourist map of the city). I agree, if you start at 50% you'll make the trader's day. I think there's a well-founded assumption that most foreigners will think they've had a win if they get down to 50% of the asking price - which is why the asking price is often 4, 8 or more times what the trader is prepared to accept. (Of course you don't bargain at department stores, pharmacies, convenience stores etc.)

And no, you don't need a tour guide - Shanghai isn't a difficult city to find your way around on foot or by taxi.

where is the knock off market located?
how does Old Shanghai compare to other areas?