One of these days one of your Chinese friends is going to tell you about the wonder of Qipu Lu, huge shopping malls full of market stalls telling cheap clothes, do yourself a favour, just forget you ever heard about it.
From the moment you step out of a taxi you’ll be surrounded by the most persistent touts/hawkers I’ve ever come across, in our case inexplicably dressed in tops enblazoned with ITALIA. We told them constantly “go away, leave us alone, stop following us”but they kept replying “it’s no problem, we help you”, “no, it’s a BIG problem, go away”
One in front, three behind
We were tailed by the initial set of hawkers for about 90 minutes, four girls of various age who quickly got angry that we refused to follow them to their stall. To try to shake them we went into McDonalds for lunch, they followed us inside and sat at a nearby table, after a while they split into two groups to guard the other door to make sure we didn’t sneak out when they weren’t paying attention.
McHawker
We got up and started to walk, they all jumped up and followed us as we walked back to the counter and ordered a round of ice creams, they glared and tutted, muttering under their breaths. After finishing the ice cream we got up, they jumped up again, but we went into the toilets, they were fuming. As soon as we left the store they resumed the relentless tactics, telling us that clothes in stores we were looking at were rubbish and trying to take over any negotiations when we were interested in something (no doubt looking for commission). It’s pretty much the closest I’ve ever got to hitting a girl. At one point when I was getting really pissed off we walked towards some of the security guards to continue arguing with the hawkers, they just turned away and didn’t pay any attention.
When it finally became clear that we would not go to their stall they started to get nasty, telling my friend that his girlfriend wasn’t to be trusted, that she was very ugly, that she was probably very old.
It wasn’t just the hawkers that ruined it, the shopkeepers themselves were miserable, at one point we were looking at clothes in a shop when the owner walked over to say “don’t touch my clothes”. What’s more the prices weren’t even cheap (for foreigners anyway), shoes I’d seen on Ruijin Lu for 39rmb (for the 150rmb night) were now 200rmb and they wouldn’t move on price, in general pretty much everything was cheaper in local shops where I live.
Anyway, almost as soon as we shook the initial set of hawkers we were picked up by another set who were equally persistent, then later another set and on and on until we gave up and got into a taxi (surrounded by the latest set of hawkers, staring at us in disbelief as we drove away without giving in to their demands.
Seconds out, round 2
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Qipu Lu – 0/10, one of the worst possible experiences you can have in Shanghai
On a positive note, I once went to Qipu lu with my ex and never got bothered at all, I guess the message is always make sure you go with a local!
11 Comments
You should have filmed it/them!
Hilarious and I always said that that Trisha can’t be trusted and is at least 50 years old
But sorry to say Qipu Lu is NOT like you described and it’s simply because you’re western. I’ve never had anyone follow me and bought my 10 rmb fake Calvin Klein underpants in peace.
“Sorry to say Qipu Lu is NOT like I described?”
Are you just trying to annoy me, it’s exactly like I described, you look like a local and never experience this side of it, they only target foreigners, I mentioned this in my closing comment about when i went there with my local ex.
It was exactly the same last time I went, had a female colleague over from the UK who’d read about it in a guidebook and wanted to go, she’s a hardened travel (Beirut for a holiday last year) and even she could only stick it for 45 minutes before throwing in the towel and asking me to get us a taxi.
It’s a good job you’re not in Korea right now Peter, I’d come over there and throw cotton balls at you, really hard!
WoAi- that’s like saying South Africa in the 80s wasn’t racist if you were white.
Ah yes, the good old days of apartheid …. Dingle, just yanking your chain. Why do you think I sent my “colleague” to get my gear from there rather than go myself.
Qipu Road is Shopgirl’s heaven.
Qipu Lu? I thought you were a brand whore?
Woai – I will be passing your comments onto Tricia…..you are in so much Trouble!!!
Go on Wig tell him, tell him there’ll be three hits!!!
im def. not a brand whore
i love shopping at Qipu Road
i only care about brands regarding bags, shoes, coat and watches.
other things, nope, the cheaper the better
Yes i found it was buggy as well, the pages here load very slowly. I suppose it happens sometimes with servers