What do the ever-growing numbers of Chinese tourists do when they travel overseas? They shop, apparently:
The list of approved destinations is now almost 100. In Europe, France is the most popular destination — about 700,000 mainland Chinese visited the country in 2005 — followed by Italy. Possibly by 2015, the Chinese will be the first or second-biggest national group to visit France each year, ahead of the British, Americans and Japanese, according to the Paris Tourist Board. The lure is not history, art or food — it is shopping…
Often bus tours of mainlanders will visit historic sites in Europe — stopping at the British Museum for example — but only long enough to be photographed in front of the sign that says British Museum before moving on to the next stop. They don’t actually go in.
Is there any physical good these days that’s worth travelling around the world to buy? Is there anything left you can’t get on Ebay?
Robert Merkel:
“Jintian shixingqi’er. Zher jiu shi Bilishi”. Why do you ask?
Actually, it’s more like “Jintian shi xingqiliu. Zher jiu shi Aodaliya. Weishenma shangdianlide shangpin dou shi ZhongGuoZhiZaode?”. Today’s Saturday so this has to be Australia …. how come all the stuff in the shops is Made In China? [or something like that].
Shoes! Don’t you live in Melbourne, Robert? Maybe you’re spoiled. Clothes and shoes just aren’t that easy or cheap to ship. And you want to try them on first. Maybe if I lived in Manhattan, I’d never have to leave the apt as I could get everything delivered (including books from amazon within an hour), but, still… There is enormous pleasure in shopping in stores. May I respectfully suggest that you don’t get it because you’re a boy? (Some boys do, many don’t).
Not to mention the fact that many desirable American and European products you can buy off the net won’t ship to Australia. I take as my text my fave brand of shoes – Campers (they’re from Spain):
<img src="http://www.zappos.com/images/727/7278571/4998-329962-d.jpg"
I can’t buy those ones online if I’m in Australia. Brisvegas doesn’t have the market to support shops that stock the whole range. If I fly to Melbourne or Sydney, they’re the only places I can buy them in Oz. Or I could go to Singapore or Hong Kong.
But in any case, who wants to buy someone else’s used shoes on ebay? And who buys shoes without trying them on? You’d be a mug!
Shoeblogs probably have a stack more readers than political blogs:
http://shoeblogs.com/
I know sewing and fabric blogs do.
Just try buying these on the intertubes:
<img src="http://www.zappos.com/images/723/7231016/1733-242937-d.jpg"
You have to go to America to get Zappos!
I mean, I know what I do when I go to LA.
(Buy shoes).
As you were…
You can never have too many shoes Kim.
I find it fascinating that the Chinese version of the Cooks Tour doesn’t even bother with scheduling time for some wandering around pretending to listen to the docents: they have acknowledged that the photo opportunity (post-vacay bragging for the purpose of) is what really matters, done as efficiently as possible to leave more time to acquire one’s shopping souvenirs (again, post-vacay bragging for the purpose of).
for me it depends on how many animals have to die to make them Grace. And how much people earn putting the things together. I don’t have many shoes. Sometimes i can be a real downer.
Tigtog, that’s one of the things I found so bizarre – the sheer nakedness of the fact that the point of the trip was to brag about it afterwards.
These days, of course, the average Australian tourist has to do something a little bit more exotic to be able to brag about it post-trip – the photo has to be from the back streets of a village in Mongolia, rather than the British Museum
“I find it fascinating that the Chinese version of the Cooks Tour doesn’t even bother with scheduling time for some wandering around pretending to listen to the docents:”
And just imagine – this is the generation which suffered an education
by-pass at the hands of the Gang of Four and the mayhem of the cultural revolution. Considering where they have taken their nation I forgive them not wanting to listen to too much information about art history.
“they have acknowledged that the photo opportunity (post-vacay bragging for the purpose of) is what really matters”
Perhaps he is out of date But John Burger has a great and empathetic explanation of this non western trait in “Ways of Seeing”. Remember that for many this is the only vacation they may have outside China.
” done as efficiently as possible to leave more time to acquire one’s shopping souvenirs (again, post-vacay bragging for the purpose of).”
If you have the time some reading of Hong Kong newspapers will show the tales of how many tour groups are dragged from shop to shop to shop and then for a break to a outlet factory by schemeing travel agents and tour guides who are all paid commissions on sales.
Mind you they way some locals treat western tourists when you venture into China makes me think karma is a very under valued cosmic manifestation of the forces for good.
The fact that Chinese tourists travel to shop is being exploited outrageously in some cases, according to the Australian Consumers Association. This SMH story spells out some appalling practices by tour operators, such as charging $100 to walk on Bondi Beach, and imprisoning tourists in over-priced shops. Alarmingly, 40% of Chinese visitors are dissatisfied with their experience here.
And those 40% tell their friends and the rumours spread across China and in ten years there won’t be an industry. Talk about killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
This is an understatement – have you seen busloads of chinese tourists in Hong Kong? It’s the duty free luxury goods for them!
Sacha:
Well, they found the right place for it. There’s nothing else to do in Hong Kong except drink with the expats in Lan Kwai Fong (oh, maybe you can walk around Lamma Island on a nice day, perhaps).
Couldn’t stand the place.
I love Hong Kong. The dim sum was fantastic. The pollution just needs to be cleaned up.
It has to do with the opening up of society after decades of non-consumerism. The same was happening to residents from the Eastern Bloc soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Those with means anyway.
Or so I think.
Jiaru jintian shi xingqi er, na women yiding shi zai Bilisi ï¼?å??å¦?ä»?天æ?¯æ??æ??äº?ï¼?é?£ä¸?å®?æ?¯å?¨æ¯?å?©æ?¶ï¼?
I worked as a tour guide for some Chinese tour groups and I can tell you they enjoy the same activities and sights as other nationalities. The problem is that unscrupulous tour operators sell them tours at cost price so the guides rely on commission on what the tourists buy – hence the itineraries focused on shopping opportunities.
Hmm, why do they shop?
“Luxury goods tend to be 20 to 30 per cent cheaper in Europe or Hong Kong than China due to high tariffs and consumption taxes there.”