Hi there,
I am travelling to Shanghai in Feb 2006 and was hoping to get some info on shopping whats there and what to watch out for, costs of things etc. Thanks

xiangyang market ( 襄阳市场 ) is the local fake market. it's not as good as it's counterparts in beijing, shenzhen, and guangzhou, but does have all the staples.

personally, i prefer several of the boutiques along shanxi road north of huaihai road. my favorite is a shirt store on changle road just west of shanxi road (in fact, i plan on going there today); they sell really nice zegna and paul smith shirts (if they're fake, i can't tell) for y80 - y150. there is nice leather in the area as well.

if you want antique furniture, there are a number of restoration factories on hongmei and hongxu roads in gubei. prices are a little on the high side (more than in other parts of china), but quality is great (i once bought an opium bed out there for around $700, which i later sold in dc for $5000).

for tea, smaller antiques, and art, focus on the markets between the bund and huangpi road. (the jade market is the most famous and touristy, but there are lots, each with different specialties)

as far as actual stores are concered, the glitziest are concentrated in the 3 areas: along nanjing road, along huaihai road, and at xintiandi. ime there is no point shopping at high-end western stores because the prices are much higher in china than other places (less sales, in particular).

that's all i can think of for now.

Thanks heaps for this info, do you have anything in regards to womens clothing/handbags etc??

This is actually MRS IainF asking...not IainF...

I don't have a particular penchent for dresses...

Mrs. Dawei liked the boutiques along shanxi road north of huaihai road mentioned by Moondog.

She very much did not like Xiang Yang Market.

The other great shopping are the ocassional sales that spring up in various wearhouses or exhibtions centers. One of the best is Isetan's annual sale at the Shanghai Exhibition and Convention Center (the one across from the Portman). Great deals.

We also enjoyed the Shanghai Fabric Market:
Dong Jia Du Lu Market (董家渡路市场)
Add: 142 Dongjiadu Lu (董家渡路142号)

Browse the isles, choose the fabric you like and they will work it up for you with in a day.....

It's useful to get familiar with the real thing before venturing into Xiangyang. I would suggest stopping by Plaza 66 to do a little research: note the zippers, the patterns, the feel of the leather, etc. With LV products in particular, the real ones always center the local and rarely chop the "LV" itself (though cherries and other gimmocks are often chopped). Market rates are between $10 and $35 or so. It's worth it to pay more for the higher quality bags.

Thanks everyone for your help, if anyone else can think of any other tips please let me know.

I have a friend who has been staying with me in Beijing (well, really not with me all that much since I am usually elsewhere) for the past 2 months. Yesterday, we went to xiu shui (aka silk alley) together in order to buy some knick-knacks for another friend that just left town today.

Anyway, during the course of our shopping, my friend revealed to me that he's been spending ~15 hours per week simply hanging out at the market and trying to learn the business (a great way to learn Chinese because of the repetitive use of a limited vocabulary). .....and, aparently, he's learned quite a bit. Here's a summary of some of the main takeaways:

-most of the vendors their pick up their merchandise from the same sources inside the building itself. Therefore, most merchants in similar product categories sells the exact same stuff.
-Because restocking is a PITA, morning prices are always higher than night prices.
-Every item has an established clearing price. One good way to determine the clearing price is to talk to at least 5 merchants that are selling the same items and play them against each other (they often collude of course, but this technique is still fairly effective).
-My friend's strategy is to figure out what item x is worth, offer the "correct" price, and stand firm. (This is also my technique, but I tend to quote prices that I think are reasonable rather than taking the time to ascertain the correct price.) In any case, offering a price that is ridiculously low doesn't accomplish as much as you might think because doing so wastes merchants' time.
-A lot of the travel guides instruct shoppers to shoot for an arbitrary percentage (usually 25-33%) of the asking prices and merchants are well aware of this.
-As such, asking prices often have no relation to clearing prices. For example, we bought a jade bracelet yesterday that may or may not have been real. The asking price was y2800. We paid y40. My friend told me that, based on his research on the same product category, 1 in 10 foreigners pay the asking price straight-up. Another 1 knocks off 10-20%. Meanwhile, around 5 pay 25-33% of the total.
-There isn't a whole lot of truth to the myth that foreigners are subjected to higher clearing prices than Chinese (although my personal experinences in Shanghai are somewhat contradictory). Furthermore, Chinese aren't inherantly better bargainers; a good strategy is a good strategy, regardless of skin color or linguistic ability.

I realize that for many people, myself included, the idea of turning a simple shopping trip into something more akin to psychological warfare for the purpose of saving a few dollars is a waste of time. However, I think it's useful to have a basic understanding of the way things work before taking the plunge. Moreover, the basic "know your price" maxim isn't all that time consuming; if you have to tack on an extra y20 to get out in a hurry, so be it.

Also, the best bargains are offered when you just walk away.

that is one of tricks i learned as well.

offer the price (my is usually 30-50% of asking price for clothes, e.g., never buy jade/jewelry), and walk away....but only do so when there is no other potential customer around.

when there is another potential custom, you never win, because
1) seller has another alternative
2) seller does not want to let the other custom know his price is knocked down

Thanks everyone for your tips. I have been told that you can also get brand name clothing much cheaper in Shanghai as it is made there, does anyone know of any particular outlets where say Country Road, The Gap or like brands are available??
Thanks Mrs F

I believe many clothes these days are made in places that don't that aren't subjected to the same production quotas as China. In fact, I happen to know a guy that owns one of China's largest denim factories and he has recently shifted his business towards making movies and the like because he can no longer supply Wal Mart at the same profit margins as his SE Asian competitors.

That said, you can still pick up plenty of "designer" clothes here, but almost all are knock-offs. Frankly, I could care less whether my "Paul Smith" or "Zegna" shirts are real, so long as they hold up for a few months and don't irritate my skin. If your standards are the same as mine, then you'll love Shanghai.

I should also point out that, the fake stuff aside, Shanghai's style is pretty progressive; you can definitely find cool clothes here, but if you really want Gap or BR, then you might be better served by your local shopping mall.

I thought I saw fake GAP shirts at the fake market in Shanghai recently.

Yes, you can get fake versions of pretty much anything. However, many people like to convince themselves that they are buying excess/hot inventory from the same factory that makes the genuine Gap shirts. This is not often the case.

I would venture to guess if there were fake GAP shirts around there would be genuine GAP stores. Otherwise, why would you fake it?