A shopper’s paradise in China

Published Sep 16, 2014

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Beijing - I’m a sucker for anything that glitters or looks fetching on a well-lit shelf, and if the impulse is strong enough I just ring it up on my credit card without peeking at the price. I knew that in China there would be dozens of such temptations – trinkets, clothes, cosmetics, electronics, objet d’art – which if they made it back to my home would probably end up dejected and unloved like all the other things in their namesake.

So I told myself on landing in Beijing that temperance was the trick to travelling in China. Of course, by day two I’d made a significant dent in my shopping budget already, but I reckon I got off to a reasonably sober spending start, for who can resist a dainty Chinese tea set in the tea garden in the Forbidden City? Maybe it was the heat – China in August gets up to well over 30°C – but tasting five different types of tea, expertly concocted by a charming young woman with quaint English pronunciation, was enough to convince me that I’d do this ritual at home. That, of course, was an illusion, but a quality Chinese tea set makes a pretty display, so no regrets.

Next on our shopping agenda was a visit to a freshwater pearl factory in Beijing. China leads the world in freshwater pearl production, which has essentially replaced natural pearl harvesting. The allure of these lustrous little treasures, cultivated in mussels (not oysters) is that they’re less expensive than their seawater cousins, and they come in all sorts of shapes, colours and sizes. It’s not easy to leave without some jewellery, but I got more out of this by way of an interesting insight into the weird paradox of pearl cultivation, namely that these beauts are created because an irritant inserted into the mollusk over which the pearl – made of nacre, which is calcium carbonate – grows in defence of itself.

One shopping experience that immediately had my credit card out playing was a visit to a silk factory in Shanghai. This is another story of man intervening in nature to make something beautiful, in this case, silk duvets. From silkworm cocoons, strands of up to a kilometre long provide delicate layers of silk duvet filling that doesn’t bunch or shift, and it remains so unless you frequently wash it. A silk duvet is cool in summer, and warm in winter, and now that I’ve tested it I’m glad I didn’t leave China without one.

Most visitors to China will also be taken along to a jade factory, and if you like this green stone – which in China has a history of 4 000 years – there’s a huge range of jewellery and sculptures to choose from. Personally I find that jewellery design in China is all a bit standard issue, so you’re not going to get imaginative shapes in necklaces, earrings or bracelets, aside from which jade is monotonous without other colours thrown in.

One of the most expensive shopping sprees you can go on in Shanghai is in the fashionable Xintiandi area, a car-free, Western-style “live, work, play” space woven in with rebuilt shikumen (traditional stone gate houses). The old and new architecture works a charm in this upmarket precinct full of chic restaurants, top-end boutiques, cafés and bars, although this project, costing a whopping $170 million, wasn’t without controversy. Shanghai’s brazen nod to modernism, racing along at a not exactly dignified speed after China set about its economic reforms in the 1980s, breaking up the Mao era, was bound to draw criticism from traditionalists. But hats off to the Xintiandi developers because the “old” here is not only preserved but celebrated. But it’s a bit out of my league, so instead I went shopping for lunch.

I found it in the “Soho” nearby, Tianzifang, also reconstructed shikumen but with a more authentic aura with its narrow old alleyways (longtangs), artists, al fresco cafés and vendors selling everything from pocket watches, cheongsam (traditional Chinese dresses) to oversized White Rabbit sweets. Being South African, I can be forgiven for being drawn through the labyrinthine streets to the New York Steak & Burger restaurant, which if you’re brave enough, serves a towering Manhattan burger that will quench your craving for Western food for at least 24 hours. Whatever the price, I was determined not to give way to eating at McDonald’s or Kentucky.

As for all things electronic, I took one look at the prices in the Apple store in Hangzhou and decided against buying an iPad there. In fact, in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, I found that the prices of tablets and cellphones are on a par with prices here, so the market seems to have levelled out globally. Had I been tempted to blow a lot of moolla, I’d have done it in 798 Art Zone in Beijing.

But I got back without being foolish and wild, except perhaps for the circle-shaped shades my daughter says I look like Harry Potter in.

 

New business-class seat for SA passengers

 

Cathay Pacific has launched its award-winning new business class seats to its South African customers on the Boeing 777ER, which started flying daily between Joburg and Hong Kong on September 2.

“Some of our frequent travellers from South Africa sampled the new product earlier this year when we occasionally operated the 777ER aircraft on the route due to rotation.

That’s why we’ve offered this new product,” says Frosti Lau, country manager for Cathay Pacific in South Africa.

Cathay Pacific flights: www.cathaypacific.com

Saturday Star

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