Average Total Cost for Trip

[Jadams79]

Neil, by all means if your girl wants to go to KTV go, if you dont sing tell her beforehand but I think you are a chicken if you dont try ^_^, I did not hear one chinese that sounded like the chinese guy on whatever reality tv show that was here a while back.  Its fun, the KTV I went to (along with severl other friends) was a private room, although there was no buffet like at Irish' place he went to. If you know a few late 60's mid 70's rock songs you should be ok.  The KTV's I went to this was about the most current rock they had on the play list. There was not exactly a broad selection of KTV, one of the bars I visited in Nanning also had KTV with some more modern music, drank a couple of weak chinese beers and took off before anyone cornered me to try to sing something though.

Had a similar experience in a couple of the tour vans where they had installed DVD players for KTV DVD's, just getting the girls to decide on something was the most nerve wracking part of the whole ordeal. Learned several songs this way, found them on youtube as well and very much plan on singing along on my next trip.

As for buying clothes and stuff I found some dirt cheap clothing shops, probably got about 10 new outfits for under $120 plus the bag to carry them in, although I used my account to fedex the stuff home.  I traveled with one bag plus my laptop bag, both carry on ^_^

[maxx]

Irishman What?

KKtv is alive and well in China  both kind of clubs all over the place.The ligitmate KKtv clubs and the special clubs.

You are in the hotel all by yourself.Phone rings late at night a girl starts talking to you in Chinese.It is probably a hooker trying to drum up buissnes. A Knock on the door in the middle of the night.9 out of 10 times its a hooker.Your hotel offers in room massages or a in room foot massage it is probably a prostitution buissness.I have even left my hotel room and come back a couple hours latter and found a hooker" buissness card stuffed under the door.So yeah it is all over the place.

It isn't in your face like it is in Thailand and the Phillippens but it is there.The Chinese are alot more descrete about it.

[David5o]

Factory shops.....
As far as clothes are concerned, if you are staying anywhere near a clothing factory complex, Check out if that complex has what they call a ''factory Outlet/shop" If it does, you could be on an even bigger winner. Some of these better factories (normally found in complexes on industrial parks) will have been contracted out by top name Western designers. Benetton, RL (Polo), ESL, etc, etc......

The way it works is that a factory Will get an order for,....lets say a shirt. The contracted number of shirts is, ... lets say 1000. as each run cannot be easily sequenced, they will make a run of 1020 (for example), to cover any faults or damage in the contracted 1000 units they have to supply. So, if all 1020 shirts come out perfect, the factory now has 20 units that are doing nothing. That's where the in-house shop comes in, it's an outlet to get rid of all these unwanted factory items, from the factories in that complex ....

Now remember these items of clothing are the real mccoy, not knock-offs. they tend to cut just enough of the name labels out,  to let you know who, they where made for.  and believe me they go for an absolute song, ....for not that much more , than the knock-offs in fact.
They used to have similar outlets in Hong Kong around the Lai Chi Kok area, before most of the contracts were moved to mainland China.

So ask your lady if she knows of any such factory shops in her area, .... well worth visiting if you find one., but a heavy case to take home ...haha!!

David....

[Tiztom]

Shaun, I'll be in Changsha for 4 weeks as of the 20'th of next month, the girl I'm seeing owns a dress shop so I'm sure she will have contacts in the men's wholesale trade too & I'll be looking as I'm only going to pack enough clothes to last me a week, from what I hear Changsha is pretty cheap compared to the more popular big city's so providing things work out I'll know enough to give you some good tips on how & where to save some cash.
I love bartering with them to the point they are almost bleeding, when I'm in Bali I usually end up with a crowd around me as the street vendor & I have some fun seeing who can make the other give in & I know from experience the Chinese love to haggle too.

[shaun]

Tom, for me haggling is a way of life. I grew up on the border of the US and Mexico so I am well versed in it. I own a furniture store in a open air market and nearly every sale made the customers will haggle with me. I love it.  Reading peoples comments on this site has taught me a valuable lesson in haggling. I have alway had difficulties in selling furniture to Asian couples. When we began haggling I would most of the time talk with the man.  Once I learned from reading some of the married men here on this site and learning the home is the womans, I shifted to speaking to the woman and my sales have gone up dramatically. Funny thing to me is if they like the dramatics and are enjoying themselves they will usually buy more items.

When you come back if you could share some of the places you enjoyed or did particulairly well at please pass the names on.  From what I understand Changsha is  very large city but maybe Luaping will know where it is.

[David5o]

Shaun,

Your right Changsha, is a very large city, .....believe it or not, ...it's bigger than Beijing itself. But it's nowhere near as modern as Beijing....

David....