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
WATCH BAG DVD WATCH SEX DVD WATCH BAG WATCH BAG BAG BAG BAG WATCH DVD DVD LOUIS VITTON WATCH ROLLOX DVD DVD WATCH BAG BAG DVD DVD WATCH BAG BAG BAG BAG WATCH DVD
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!
