I just came home from 10 days in Shanghai, the New York City of China. In a city with 20 million inhabitants and many more tourists, it's no surprise that it's a shopper's paradise. The current exchange rate between 1 US dollar and the local currency, the RMB is about 1 to 6.8. So for a US tourist, you get a lot more for your dollar. In Shanghai, you'll find many multi-level department stores. These stores are clean, brightly lit and air conditioned with up to date fashion but I found that they're for browsing only and gauging prices. A cute trench coat will go for about 30USD, which is not bad but not much of a bargain. You'll also see many recognizable interational brands like DKNY which will cost you about twice as much as what you would pay in the US. So definitely avoid the name brands. On the street, you'll find many small, privately owned boutiques. Some are filled with "local" styles with flowers and glitters but there are definitely a lot of stylish boutiques emulating US or Japanese fashion. I checked out prices at these boutiques are they're also in about the 30USD range. But I found that they were too spread out to efficiently shop. My sources in Shanghai told me that these boutiques get their inventory from the wholesale district of "Qi Pu Road" anyway, so that's where I wanted to go!
The Qi Pu Road area has about 4 department store sized buildings. Each floor is lined with stall after stalls of all kinds of clothes and accessories. The floors are only loosely organized by category. The scene was quite daunting but also exciting. This is the jackpot of bargain shopping. Luckily, my resourceful cousin took me straight to the floors with the modern and western styles. I was not disappointed. We found knock off brand name pieces for $10 - $15 USD. There are a few gotchas. Since this the wholesale district, the sellers are less willing to haggle overprices. Sizes are also limited, as in, one size fits all. Now, I'm a US size small on top and size 2 on the bottom and I found the tops snug. So I guess if it doesn't fit, you're just out of luck. Other than that, if you had a good pair of walking shoes, a knowledgable guide and a hunger for bargains you can spend a whole week in the area and get great finds.
On a side note not related to shopping per se, Shanghai is a great place to get pampered. We went to a clean, tranquil, beautifully decorated (and legit) spa where we had our private room for two. We were greeted with a waitress offering tea and food (complimentary!) then changed into comfy cotton pajamas for our massage. Seventy relaxing minutes later, we sank into our own loungers, drank our tea and nibbled on yummy snacks. Did I say that the snacks were free and we could hang out for as long as we wanted? And all this for about $20 USD! There are many spas offering full body massages and foot massages in the area and they're highly competitive, hence the free extras. I also got a one hour foot rub for $10 USD, again with tea service and your own TV. If I didn't have family obligations on this trip I would have had a massage everyday! Another favorite pass time on this trip was getting my hair washed. This is where you sit in a salon chair and the hair washer person pours just the tiniest amount of water on your head to combine with shampoo and work up a lather. He continues to do this until your head is totally soapy and foamy but he does this expertly so that you're not dripping with water. Then you're rinsed off and a stylist blow dries and styles your hair. For this level of pampering, the price ranges anywhere from $1 USD to $6 USD. You can't beat it.
