A Guide to Shopping in China

Shopping can be a challenge in another culture.  The inability to read labels, currency exchange issues, and understanding proper product values are only a handful of the difficulties that shoppers can expect to face in a foreign country.  However, it’s not impossible to adjust.  I’ve created for you, dear readers, this blog post to educate you on some of the finer points of shopping in China.  

Disclaimer: Shop owners in China don’t like pictures taken of their stalls so this blog post will be a little sparse on photos.  I had only two shopkeepers agree to let me photograph their goods. 

Currency Exchange

“The People’s Currency” (Chinese: 人民币; pinyin: rénmínbì)

“Chinese Dollar” (Chinese: 元; pinyin: yuán) or (Chinese: 块; pinyin: kuài).

“0.1 Fraction of a Yuan” (Chinese: 角; pinyin: jiǎo) or (Chinese: 毛; pinyin: máo)

 

The current market value of the yuan is equal to 0.16 of the US dollar.  This means that 6 yuan is almost equal to 1 American dollar.  Chinese yuan comes in six different notes: 1元, 5元, 10元, 20元, 50元, and 100元.  Sometimes using the 100元 note can be a little intimidating for Americans due to the triple digit figure.  But a good rule of thumb is to think of a Chinese 100元 note like a $20 bill: they are very commonly carried and often exchange hands.  There are also Chinese coins: the 10 cent piece and the 50 cent piece.  This can get a little confusing because the ten cent piece is called the 1 jiao (一角; yījiǎo) and the 50 cent piece is called the 5 mao/jiao (五毛; wǔmáo/五角; wǔjiǎo.)  Most Chinese businesses do not use coins lower than the 0.1’s place.  Furthermore, they do have 1元 coins and 1角 and 5角 notes, so you can expect to see both.  It’s a good idea to take 1元 coins for the Beijing subway systems as these are easily fed into the automatic ticket stalls without too much a hassle.  

Here is an example of some commonly said money exchange dialogue:

Buyer: “多少钱?” (“Duōshǎo qián?” = “How much does it cost?”)

Seller: “十二块五。” (“Shí'èr kuài wǔ.” = “12 yuan and 5 jiao.”)

The literal translation of “十二块五” is actually “10 2 dollar 5.”  The word kuai is a separator used to designate the dollars from the cents.  Shop prices never go beyond the 0.1’s place so you’ll never have a number great than 9 after the word kuai.  However, coins a very seldom used.  Most stores sell things in dollar amounts only.  So it’s common to see a smart phone tagged with a priced of 2499元 and a pair of pants tagged at a price or 300元.  Food stores are the only place where such labels as 3.5元 are common. 

Where to Shop for Food

There are several convenient shopping locations located within walking distance of my apartment.  There is a lady who sells fruit on the corner of my block, a couple convenience stores, and a Walmart Supercenter that’s only a 10 minute walk from my place.  For me, I can get almost everything I need from these three stores.  The local convince store is a little more expensive than Walmart but it’s really easy to get to and it beats waiting in the long checkout lines.  However, it has a limited supplies and I’m often left with a once a week Walmart run for the real food.  Walmart, on the other hand, is a two-story tall building full of almost everything you could need, with the exception of cheese and butter.  (It’s really hard to find cheese and butter in China.)  Walmart has a fresh produce section, a meat counter, and plenty of isles of goods.  The have one whole isle dedicated to foreign imports.  Here you can find such exotic goods as Goldfish Crackers, cans of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, and ketchup!  The setup and layout of Walmart is distinctly American and it is probably the one place an American would feel at home when shopping.  Nevertheless, there are a couple of differences for Chinese convenience.  You’ll find that all the products have Chinese labels and seldom come with English.  Also, they don’t refrigerate their eggs... That takes a little getting used to.  Other differences include: milk in a bag, butchers cutting up dead pigs right before your eyes, and a counter where you have to get your selection of fresh vegetables weighed and sealed due to theft concerns.  Labels can be a real issue due to the lack of package images and English.  I recommend an interpreter for a first visit or to buy a known product.  Certain products still bare the same English logos like Tide and Gillette.  But there are also many Chinese brands to consider and some might be better.  However, I don’t recommend Mr. Bright potpourri flavored tooth paste.  It not only tastes bad but it made my lips go numb.  Don’t worry, I switched brands and I once again have full use of my lips. 

Buying Goods

Buying fruit, vegetables, and grains are a whole other issue.  I normally visit the fruit lady and her cart to buy all my bananas, oranges, strawberries and pineapples.  But buying fruit from her requires knowing the terms regarding amount and weight of the fruit you want to buy.  China uses the metric system and they have their own words for weight measurement.  The most important word is jin (Chinese 斤; pinyin: jīn).  1 jin is equal to 1.102 lb and 2 jin is equal to 1 kilogram.  When buying fruit, the seller will ask you how many jin do you want and they will often tell you the price of the fruit per jin.  The only exception to this is bananas and they’ll just ask you how many you want.

Example:

Buyer: “草莓多少钱一斤?”  (“Cǎoméi duōshǎo qián yī jīn?” = “How much for 1 pound of strawberries?”)

Seller: “四块钱一斤。” (“Sì kuài qián yī jīn.” = Four yuan a pound.”

Note how the buyer’s sentence is constructed:

草莓 (cǎoméi = Strawberries)

+ 多少钱 (duōshǎo qián = How much?)

+ 一斤 (yī jīn = one pound).

So a literal translation is “Strawberries, how much for one pound?” 

If you want half-a-pound then simply say ban jin (半斤; bàn jīn) instead of yi jin (一斤; yī jīn).  Yi simply means one and ban simply means half.  Replace the word yi with any of the other numbers if you want more than one pound. 

Chinese Number System

一，二，三，四，五，六，七，八，九，十

yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

Numbers between ten and twenty are written/spoken:

十一 (shí yī = 11), 十二 (shí èr= 12), etc.

Anything more than 19 is written/spoken:

二十 (èr shí = 20), 二十一 (èr shí yī = 21) , etc.

“Hundred” (Chinese: 百; pinyin: bǎi )

The most common store labels will use Arabic numerals: ¥ 9.50 元.  However, some street merchants will label their goods with Chinese numbers: 三元/斤 (“sān yuán/jīn” = “3 yuan for each pound”). All merchants will speak the Chinese names of the numbers regardless of the label.

Haggling with Street Vendors

Do you feel overwhelmed yet?  There’s one more area I want to tackle.  That’s the area of bargaining and product value.  One feature of most Chinese merchants is that they will spend hours haggling over prices.  Department stores won’t do this but there are lots of street merchants and most all are willing to make a deal.  However, some caution is advised.  Goods sold by street merchants are most likely knock-off products and they come in abundance.  If you want to know the true value of a legitimate product than department stores like Walmart are your best bet.  Get to know the prices of things you want to buy by looking at the tags.  A dress shirt probably costs somewhere between 100元-130元 ($16-$20).  So some prices are comparable to the US market.  Food prices are often 3-6 times less than their American counterparts.  It’s not advisable to barter with street merchants when it comes to food.  They usually price things fairly and won’t charge you above the market value.  Clothing merchants, on the other hand, will rob you blind if you let them.  

Near my apartment is a park called the Children’s Park.  It has long since ceased to function as a children’s amusement park and is now overrun with merchant stalls.  There are a lot of odds and ends that can be found in this place.  Some items are secondhand and others are knock-offs.  I went there last winter hoping to find a cheap winter coat.  A salesman pulled me into his booth and showed me his fine line of Jack Wolfskin jackets.  Upon closer inspection of the tag I found that there were spelling errors, (a sure sign of a knock-off product).  The salesman tried to convince me that it was legit and then he said in broken English, “You are my friend and I will give you a good deal.”

I asked him how much and he said, “For you, my friend, 600元.”  (600元 = $100)

I took one disgusted look at him, threw my hand in the air and angrily proclaimed, “太贵了!” (tài guile = too expensive.)  Then I walked away with the shop keeper on my heels begging me to name my price.

Street merchants will try to milk foreigners for everything they can get.  Usually they will charge an excess of 8-10 times higher than the actual value of the product.  When buying from street merchants I have a method that usually gets them down.  When buying such things as Chinese shirts or other goods I will always pretend to be dumb.  I pretend that I can’t speak Chinese and that I’m happy with their sells pitch.  Most all of them will always give a long speech about how the product is so good and how they are willing to sacrifice to make the deal work for you, “Their new friend.”  I always let them finish their speech before saying anything, all-the-while, acting very pleased with what I’m hearing.  Once the speech is over then they will give the price.  It’s at this point that I take one disgusted look at them, throw up my hand in the air and angrily proclaimed, “太贵了!” (tài guile = too expensive.)  It’s usually upon realizing I can speak in Chinese that the merchants start quickly backpedaling.  At this point I will direct their attention to the price values of department stores and say that their product isn’t even worthy enough to get inside Walmart.  This is when the price value war begins.  One time, I was buying a Chinese shirt, when the buyer started out with an asking price of 600元.  I responded with 50元.  He was insulted by how low I went and said he wouldn’t sell me the product.  So I turned a left his store.  He immediately followed me out, grabbed my hand, pulled me back in and apologized.  He then dropped it to 500元.  I went up to 60元.  This continued until we finally settled on 80元.  It might seem like a hassle to go through all this trouble of bargaining but I find it fun to watch street merchants squirm.  I good rule of thumb is to always be willing to walk away if you don't get the price you want.  More than likely there will be another merchant selling the same thing just a stall away.

Shopping in China can be an adventure.  But it’s one that I believe every foreigner can handle.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Most people are very willing to help out a dazed and confused foreigner.  Just don’t ask the street merchants for help and never believe them when they say they are your friend.  If you want straight forward shopping than I recommend Walmart and other large department stores. 

Bulk goods and unrefrigerated milk.

For your cold drinks.

Everything a Chinese kitchen could need.

Instant Noddles!

Sauces for Cooking

MSG in a Bag!

Recognize these?

How about those flavors?

"Yum, stake flavored potato chips!"

Does America even sell bars of soup for cleaning clothes?

Need some paper?

Snacks!

Warm Drinks

My Local Convenience Store

Goods from Walmart

Sealed Vegetables from Walmart & Bagged fruit from the Fruit Lady

Walmart!

Street Vendors Outside of Walmart

Walmart Prices

"The incredible, edible, and unrefrigerated egg!"

Fruits and Vegetables

Bread

The Fruit Lady!