Gifts for the lady

[Mark_in_Canada]

What gifts would you reccomend to bring for your lady in China. Some of my ideas are: perfume, chocolate-not sure about this one, might melt,
vitamins, skin lotion, something Canadian-besides me...haha
thanks for your idea in advance!!!

[Willy The Londoner]

Forget the chocs unless you bring them in a fridge. The temp here today is 35 and in a week or so not going to get much lower.

Perfume. I bought some at the duty free shop on last trip. Caught her going round house spraying it before some guests arrive. Soon put down when I mentioned just how many bags of rice the cost of it would have bought.
  Bring her parents some genuine vitamin pills

Of course you need to take care on how much you spend otherwise they will think you an extravagent wastral.

Willy

[Chong]

Canadian Ginseng candies from Chinatown. If you want to spurge, buy Canadian Ginseng. They'll love you.

[Mark_in_Canada]

Great ideas!
Thanks!

[Mark_in_Canada]

Chong, do you mean , the spice in a bottle, or the candies, or both

[shaun]

Mark Peggy gets all excited when I take or send her powdered milk and American under arm deodorant.  I don't understand it but it is not horrible expensive and she likes it.   She also like perfume.  Beyond that I haven't found anything else she likes.   Oh...  I recently sent her a framed picture of the two of us together in Hong Kong to put on her desk.  She is still talking about it.

[maxx]

vitamins calcium,flintstone vitamins,perfume,A good bottle of booze,cigarettes,

[Jan]

Something local? Like we have these "salt candies" at Finland. Some are sweet, some are not. I brought some to be tasted. She liked the sweet ones, though it tasted strange in her opinion haha...

Also I brought my grandmothers home made wool socks for her (which I have like 100 pairs since she always used to make wool socks...). And she said that they do not have wool socks at China, or at least in that city. And she really loved the socks, because it can get cold during the winter.

But medicine and vitamins. On my trip, I brought some normal pain/fever medication. Which also cures hangover, flu, muscle pain, its cheap and sold without a prescription in the pharmacy. So I gave the spare ones after my journey was over, and all kinds of other medication which I brought "just in case" so I would not have to visit the Chinese hospital if I got sick... Which the local pharmacy sells without prescriptions. As example lactic acid pills, which helps the stomach to digest.

Oh and sun scream. Because they do not like the sun... And I actually bought it for myself but I gave it to her.

[Martin]

I am pretty sure Chong was talking about candies.  He pointed them out to me once in a store in Toronto.  Have you considered Maple Syrup...a picture book of Canada...stuff from home...true Canadiana goes far...just try to avoid stuff that has a "Made in China" sticker on it.

[Mark_in_Canada]

thanks guys, I now have some great ideas
only 3 weeks to go.....

[Mikael_Shim]

Something local? Like we have these "salt candies" at Finland. Some are sweet, some are not. I brought some to be tasted. She liked the sweet ones, though it tasted strange in her opinion haha...

Also I brought my grandmothers home made wool socks for her (which I have like 100 pairs since she always used to make wool socks...). And she said that they do not have wool socks at China, or at least in that city. And she really loved the socks, because it can get cold during the winter.

But medicine and vitamins. On my trip, I brought some normal pain/fever medication. Which also cures hangover, flu, muscle pain, its cheap and sold without a prescription in the pharmacy. So I gave the spare ones after my journey was over, and all kinds of other medication which I brought "just in case" so I would not have to visit the Chinese hospital if I got sick... Which the local pharmacy sells without prescriptions. As example lactic acid pills, which helps the stomach to digest.

Oh and sun scream. Because they do not like the sun... And I actually bought it for myself but I gave it to her.

Be warned , most Asians HATE licorice or salmiak . I think these candies are only very common in Northern Europe bevcause they are even rare in the states. The Asians have never tasted any "candy" close to it and they will be plenty surprised when they stick it in their mouth. I gave it to alot of Koreans and they were all cursing at me and asked me to never trick them into eating these abominations again. I picked up some here in China at IKEA too because they have some Swedish food and candy , my gf spit it out and got upset at what shit i was trying to trick her into digesting. Anyways, i think it´s a great gift if you are from northern Europe like me and Jan because this candy is quite common there and symbolizes a bit of our culture. Some Asians might actually like it, i have yet to find one though. I personally like it quite a lot. (Turkish Pepper Jan )

[Chong]

Chong, do you mean , the spice in a bottle, or the candies, or both

The candies and real Canadian Ginseng. The Chinese values the latter like gold. My wife's grandmother always ask for it.

[Mark_in_Canada]

thanks Chong!

[seagull]

I've been told perfumes and skin creams are good gifts. However, these are very personal and depend on how well you know your lady.

I went to China earlier this year, and avoided something to personal as I didn't know my lady that well. I brought her a silver opal (the national gem stone of my country) necklace being held by a koala. It turned out to be a very good gift and I am glad I chose this it was not too personal that the gift was risky to buy, but was personal enough that it still had some relevance to the relationship. I'd recommend something like that with a Canadian flavour if you do not know your lady too well.

[Jimmy]

Mark Peggy gets all excited when I take or send her powdered milk and American under arm deodorant.  I don't understand it but it is not horrible expensive and she likes it.   She also like perfume.  Beyond that I haven't found anything else she likes.   Oh...  I recently sent her a framed picture of the two of us together in Hong Kong to put on her desk.  She is still talking about it.

I agree My wife was getting all worked up over Oil of Olay. It is actually Cheaper here in the west, and she swears it is a lot different and a lot better. If you have any men you need gifts for in her family, if they are smokers they love American Cigarettes. My wifes dad loves these American Marlboro. And they truly are a lot different than the ones you buy in China.