Shenzhen/The North Pole

Hello!

Just awoke here in Hong Kong in a very sleepy way. I am wiped out from yesterday's day trip to mainland China with my friend Anne and a new friend, Farizeh. If you're like me, you probably haven't heard much about Shenzhen, but chances are that many of the clothes in your closet were made in or near it. I had no intention of going until Anne asked me to go, and boy I'm glad I did.

After a 45-minute metro ride to mainland China (yep, the real deal!), you go through immigration and walk outside. In front of you is the most mammoth grey complex I have ever seen. It is the size of a Super Wal-mart but with 5 levels. Truly enormous. Tiny shops are jam packed into this complex. It is here that you find any textile product you could imagine.

Throughout the day I kept saying how it felt like a dream--a really good, really strange dream, complete with VERY few English speakers! Most of the people in the shops are tailors, manufacturers or salesmen who don't seem to bother themselves with the concept of Copyright. Most of the buyers mean business and seem to know what they are doing as they haggle prices down and nicely argue with the shopkeepers. I am almost certain each shopkeeper could double as a currency trader, too, as you can pay for goods and receive change in many currencies. All of the shopkeepers I encountered knew the current exchange rates.You can find anything here with a quality that rivals the "original." Handbags, shoes, watches, jeans, jewelry, ipads, iphones, Wii, dresses, scarves, DVDs--at prices that make Wal-mart look expensive. I had heard the stories about getting "cheap stuff" in China, but this gave me proof. Wholesale in China is impressive.

I went to China yesterday with the intention of having a tailor make custom copies of my favorite dresses for $15 USD, but I found better value elsewhere and decided not to have the dress copied. When I returned to Hong Kong and looked at my loot, I felt like I had visited the North Pole.

I hope you'll come visit so I can show you. Mom, I kept thinking about you while I was there...you've got to come visit.