Guangzhou locals & markets

Guangzhou city, the export hub of Asia, is one hell of a mega city consisting of an urban area populous of nearly 14 million people (precisely double the size of Joberg)! Wherever you go there are always people, masses of them! Never a quiet moment in this city. The towering buildings and transport systems are truly 1st world, this in complete contrast to the vast majority of their population who are very, very 3rd world.

TV tower near new town area - massive structure with a rollercoaster attached to the top floor

Why you may ask? Spitting for one. The vast majority is accustomed to hocking very public 'loogie projectiles' and strategically placing them at various, and frequent, positions along the sidewalk. Awesome.

The signs we encountered are obviously broken as no one adhere's to them

Another favourite pastime of the local inhabitants is the growing of the 'Poo nail' - a lengthy baby finger nail that comes with many nifty uses, the most common being PUBLIC nose picking. This ergonomic nose picking tool sure is popular as we have yet to come across a Chinese male without one of these nifty gadgets! Siff.

The poo or nose picking nail

Our travel around Guangzhou were mainly on their highly efficient underground Metro system. This is a very clean and efficient service and would cost less than 8rmb (R10) to get across town and back, a 2hour journey. The Metro is littered with slogans like the one below as well as others teaching the locals to be polite to one another, not to push and to let elders sit. Through first hand experience, I can tell you for free that these signs do not work.

Be careful

The infamous 'please don't touch me' sign

Clean and efficient

The Metro is a pushing festival and thankfully us westerners are taller and generally bigger than the Chinese so we usually win these pushing bouts. If you don't push, you don't get on. It's true i'm afraid, there's no politeness here at all! You begin to become an agressive and impolite human being and forget the values you are taught back home in a more polite society.

We were in Guangzhou for nearly a month and did, however, enjoy our stay here. We were treated to lodgings in Julie and Dave's 5 star apartment situated in the heart of the new CBD area. Every amenity within a 10 minute walk. Lekker.

The main draw card fr foreigners to Guangzhou is the bustling export trade and the numerous export markets that Guangzhou offers. To name just a few of the markets we visited:

The shoe market - keep the ladies away from this one;

Leather market - selling expensive handbags, Jimmy Choo accessories, Louis Vitton products (as real as they get, complete with packaging and price tags that do not break the bank);

Handbag market - another female mecca;

Button market - yes, a 5 story building comprising of thousands of tiny tiny stalls selling every type and size of button imaginable;

Watch market - every type of analoge watch available, look through the phone book sized catalogue and choose your wrist accessory. After making your choice you'll find yourself being whisked into an elevator, through a few sneaky doors and corridors and BAM, a 'secret knock' opens the doors to the pirate watch making area of the world. Seedy looking individuals armed with magnifying glasses and briefcases, meticulously scan through the different watch displays and brands, picking only the finest copied to sell back home. Eg, a ZAR25,000 Patek Philippe lookalike would go for a mere ZAR700 in these knock off 'stores'.

The amount of stock on offer at these markets is truly mind blowing! Many international brands on offer are in fact 'Made in China', so I pose the question:

Are we purchasing oversupply of certain items (eg, Jack Wolfstein or Due South apparel) or have these items 'fallen off the back of a truck'?

Are they made in the same factory and stolen/smuggled-out by employees to sell on the black market?

The above listed product (North Face) would fetch nearly ZAR2,000 back in good old RSA, but at the export market you could pick one up for ZAR250, same materials, same Gore-Tex layers. Who is really the one being ripped off here?