I came to China with the illusion that EVERYTHING would be discounted and I could buy whatever I wanted at a fraction of the price for what it would cost in America. After all, 90% of the goods I use are stamped “Made in China.” However, now I see this idealization is not true. Aside from not everything being a deal, I also have a hard time quantifying the Yuan against the U.S. Dollar. My rule of thumb is to divide the price by 6 and it is about that in dollars. For example, I went to dinner last night and it cost me 60 Yuan. Initially seeing 60 on a bill is shocking at a restaurant when you are only paying for yourself, but following my rule of 6 it ends up being under 10 dollars when the actual conversion of 6.6 Yuan to 1 dollar is taken into consideration. Not bad for a plate of lo mein, tea, and a beer.
The KFC in China is a great deal as well. Not only is it better tasting than the ones in America but they sell these little custard pies for roughly 50 cents each. They are these pastries the size of your fist, filled with a vanilla crème like custard in a light filo dough crust, served warm. Lunch at KFC will run you anywhere from 4 to 8 dollars for a bucket of chicken, pastries, fries, potatoes, and a drink…awesome deal!
Another great deal was my experience at the barber the other day. I was in desperate need of a shave and a haircut, so I went down the street to the first barbershop I could find. I do not have an extensive hair cut vocabulary, so when they asked me what I wanted I was able to say a shave and a haircut. This barber shop seemed a bit more classy and I feared I would be paying far too much for something that could cost me a third of what it does in the states. The hair stylist asked me what type of cut I wanted. I could understand her, but I could not explain: “Take a little of the top, clean up the sides, and thin out my bangs.” Instead I flipped through a magazine, found a picture of George Clooney and said, “This” in Chinese and pointed. The hair cut and shave was a great experience! They trimmed up my beard fist and shaved me with warm shaving cream and a hot wash cloth. After the shave they washed my hair and I got a shoulder massage while sitting in my chair. The hair cut was relatively quick and probably one of the best I have received in my life. I am not saying I look like George Clooney right now but my hair cut sure does. I went to the counter after I was all cleaned up to see what the damage was. There were no prices anywhere so I thought in my head…“OK, 100 Yuan maybe 300 max”…I almost dropped dead when he said 30 Yuan! That is 5 dollars! So for a shave, hair cut, wash, and neck massage it was 5 dollars. Take that Super Cuts!
This is the part of China that is a great deal, but the other side is, from my experience, more common. After the 1 dollar breakfasts of spicy egg wraps, awesome KFCs, and 5 dollar haircuts, there are the places that get the best of you. For example, my most recent experience of a potential rip off was at a hot pot restaurant with my four friends. The story goes as such:
So we are sitting down to a traditional hot pot dinner at a restaurant near Tiananmen. If you are not familiar with hot pot style serving let me briefly explain that hot pot or “huo guo” is a Chinese style fondue where you are given a boiling broth of various flavors (mushroom, sweet and sour, hot and spicy, pork and tea, or even citrus). Once your broth comes to a boil you are given raw meat, veggies, and noodles that you throw into the pot and let them cook. The menu consists of pages of raw food items and you can choose as many as you would like. My friends and I chose beef, lamb, and pork initially, but as we finished the meat at a rate 5 times as quickly as the vegetables we decided to ask for more. I ordered the seafood platter with crab, shrimp, and scallops for the table. The platter that came out seemed too big for only 300 Yuan. There were king crab claws, giant shell fish, and two lobsters. I immediately knew something was up, so I stopped the waiter and said this was not what I ordered. He assured me that this was the only platter they had and that I definitely ordered it. I complained and told him that we wanted the crab, shrimp, and scallops but to take everything else back because it was too expensive. He agreed and everything was fine. After drinks, our bill came…3,000 Yuan for four people! I immediately knew they charged us for the deluxe platter and went straight to the manager. Because everyone refuses to speak English when money is involved and it benefits them I was restricted to the few words I learned from the restaurant dialogue. I said that we were over charged, and we would only be paying 2,000 Yuan. The extra 1,000 was for the platter we did not order. They insisted that we ordered the platter, but we stood our ground. We put 2,000 Yuan on the table and walked out. We were stopped by two waiters who told us that we were not allowed to leave until we paid. At this time I had had enough of being ripped off. I think my voice elevated and a patron stepped in to the conversation. He was Chinese, but spoke great English. I explained to him what happened and he said something to the waiter and things were resolved like that…no problem. I thanked him and he said it was his pleasure. He said this place always tries to rip off foreigners and he has a lot of business dinners here so they respect him. I thanked him again and got out of there before they tried to charge us for something else.
That is the side of China that blatantly tries to rip you off, but there actually is another rip off tactic. I call it the “Get what you pay for” rip off. My friend recently bought headphones so he could talk to his parents on Skype for 60 Yuan. A great deal for these type of head phones. When he opened the box and tried them out they did not work at all! This is why I say when you are paying 20 dollars for a purse that is exactly what it is going to be…a 20 dollar purse. It may look like Chanel, smell like Chanel, and feel like Chanel, but when the strap breaks after two weeks; I will say I told you so! Cheap goods are exactly that…cheap!
In short, there ARE deals in China, but not everything is a deal. You will find some things like cheap food and haircuts, but these savings are balanced out by the amount of times you get ripped off. I would say as of right now, China is not the great deal I thought it was.
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