Even with tourism, most visitors do not come from the United States, but rather come from Korea or Japan (at least, so I'm told). When you drive along the streets, you find that there are primarily three major things out there: restaurants, bath houses, and shopping areas.
Food I've talked about plenty already. Bath houses I haven't visited, but the basic idea is that people don't have much space at home or convenience to shower, so they typically go to a bath house where they pay for someone to scrub them down clean. My dad's maid here was extremely surprised to hear that we shower ourselves as she exclaimed: "how do you get clean?!".
So finally, there's shopping... and a recap of several moments of it throughout the last week:
Of course there are the street vendors for everything - food, trinkets, shoes, etc. Sometimes I would pass a random street and bam, there's a whole ton of vendors on it.
Otherwise, we spent most of our time in small Chinatown-style shopping areas where stores could be really small. I noticed that there are TONS of shoe stores here. Most have a plethora of boots to select from, probably due to the cold weather.
Most shopping areas are underground as this one indicates. We didn't actually go in this one though because we were told it was not good at all.
These series of photos I took on my point & shoot because I felt like people were extremely uncomfortable in the small shopping area if I pulled out my massive camera.
Yesterday, we went to this small "wholesale" shopping center and from above you can see the random things that were there - "Nike" & "Puma" bags... random kitchen utensils... yes, a "Ped Egg with handle" all the way from the US =P... and even these cute animals on the bottom photo that are actually made all from seashells - yes, seashells.
There were also medium-sized malls with unknown vendors, but larger shops and more people as well. This was for example might remind me of several malls in the Southern California area that are not the fancy schmancy ones with big name vendors.
And then I was surprised to find that on the first several floors of my dad's office building was an "American" style shopping mall, but almost to a ridiculous level considering the stores that were there. This mall was decorated even for Christmas, had guards around warning not to take pictures of the stores (got this one of Gucci anyway), etc. You'll find in the backgrounds of the above pictures that they had a Sephora, Louis Vuitton, etc. In the same mall was a Prada, Fendi, Coach, etc.
What took me almost 10 minutes to realize was how EMPTY the mall was. Aside from a few people walking around, it was virtually empty. My mom and I walked through Gucci and Louis Vuitton and there were only 2 or 3 shoppers in the stores if any at all.
That brings me to another shopping observation: most of these high-end stores had at least 20 employees throughout the 2-story store - often they were eager to help you find something (obviously since there's no one else around). In fact, when people say that in some Asian countries there is no sense of personal space, you got that right. The moment we walked into Louis Vuitton and browsed around the store, there was a store employee following just barely 2 feet back everywhere we went. I know they have a sense of "service", but I find it to have a sense of creepiness too. My mom especially hates it when people tail you as you're shopping - as if you're pressured to find something and to find it quickly.
Ah, and of course, how does a Louis Vuitton store manage to maintain 20 employees when it has 3 people even just walk through every hour? More about this later...
We also spent some time in a local grocery store called Carrefour (my dad avoids this place because of it's "uncleanliness" though it looks fine to me). My mom decided the only souvenirs she could find were tons of coasters for cups and those things you put under plates...
You can see that the wheel of this shopping card has ridges - it's so that when you take an escalator (they're flat instead of steps) the cart sticks to the escalator and does not slide up or down... pretty cool, eh?
A love for American basketball and the NBA. If you turn on the "foreign" satellite cable box that has CNN Asia, Japanese and Korean channels, channel 1 is actually ESPN. Most mornings it's playing some random NBA game that's happening live in the states (+16 hour time difference). Didn't see a Lakers game though. =(
And then there seems to be the obsession with... American or European models on almost everything. Most of the bigger ads you would find never would have an Asian model on it. Seems to me that what they "sell" her is really "Westernization" almost.
Ah, this was the most risque ad I saw in Dalian - actually caught me off guard for a city in China.
Otherwise, my mom's favorite thing to look at a lot of times was... purses. In fact, in her time here she bought FOUR and would've gotten SIX if I hadn't stopped her. I actually regret stopping her on the two because yesterday still she'd mention how nice and cheap they were...
She bought her "snake skin" (made of plastic) purse at this store and really wanted this furry one that I said looked like a big... cat - she said it was "unique".
Here are the four that she got. In American dollars, two were $15 or less.
My dad also selected this "Coach" purse for her that I actually think is really nice.
So there you go - days of shopping in Dalian and I'm sure as you can tell from the photos there are tons of shoes, purses, and random "American" branded items. I ultimately didn't get anything really simply cause there was nothing of much interest for me. In fact, I think the majority of all stores were really oriented towards women.
When I return the United States, I'm not sure whether I'll miss seeing so many stores with so many options at cheap prices, or if I'll be glad to return to our heavily branded lifestyles. Being here really made me realize how utility and even looks without a brand (or with a fake brand, haha) could often suffice. Maybe it'll make me rethink things when I return? Or maybe not...
FINALLY, an apology to friends and others who asked for souvenirs - there simply weren't any traditional souvenirs to get! Being that this is not a major city and not one for American tourism, I never once saw in the shops outside things labeled with "Dalian" or "China". There were no shot glasses or postcards, no great wall or panda figurines, etc. Unless any of you wanted an "Adidas" bag or a "Louis Vuitton" t-shirt, I admit I'm coming home slightly empty-handed... =P
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