Shenzhen, China: Day 4

It was a hectic day today as we needed to find a place to shop for Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews, pick up my cheongsam, shop for some of our stuff (if any) plus try as much as we can enjoy the Shenzhen way of life. Phew! Where do we start?

It was decided that we should head out for the Huaqiang Bei area, the Electronic & Women's World. At 10.00am we took a taxi from our hotel to get to Children's World in Huaqiang Bei as we really wanted to get this done and over with.

Children's World is located at the end of Huaqiang Road, just next to Gome. It is made up of 3 floors altogether: Children's clothings on the first floor, Maternity clothes and kid's shoes on the second floor, Toys, strationeries, books, beddings etc on the third floor. Open from 9.30am - 10.00am, shoppers can take delight in bargaining with the stall owners and have their pick.
As mum and dad were busy shopping for "grandkids" stuff, we headed for McD's for a belated breakfast.

After Children's World, we walked around a bit along Huaqiang Rd looking at clothing stores and electrical goods. Then we went inside MOI Shopping Centre to find our look for our Samsonite suitcase which we found to be a lot cheaper than 1Borneo at only RMB1500 (that's around RM750 -RM800). So what the heck, we also bought a matching overnight bag for RMB880 to go with the luggage. Still the total amount we paid is at least HALF the price here compare to 1Borneo. As we still had a lot of other shopping to do, so we decided to leave the luggage set at MOI and return there on our way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage set.

While waiting for the rest, I sat on the staircase and watched a shop assistant chat with a homeless man as he took pleasure in being entertained by a couple of cute puppies along Huaqiang Road

Visiting the various "markets" were really tiring but a worthwhile experience. I'd recommend bargain hunters to Women's World, Nico's Women's Fashion Plaza (some people confuse between these two thinking they're the same. They are not. The former sells low to middle class fashion things while the latter sells mid to high quality clothing and fashion accessories), and The Foreign Trade Clothing Market @ U.S. Market. The Foreign Trade Clothing Market reminds me of WuFenPu in Taipei.

With good bargaining tactics practised, buyer and seller are happy with their transaction. My parents at the Foreign Trade Clothing Market

After spending nearly the whole day in Huaqiang Bei area, fatigue really started to kick us hard. What with us dragging our shopping bags, bargaining with the sellers, blocking our ears to their callings, guarding our valuables from pickpockets, keeping track of where everyone else were, etc etc., how could we not feel tired? We sat my parents at Starbucks and went to shop for their digital camera (my parents have been using my old manual camera all this while and my mum wanted to keep up with the digital era) and pick up our luggage set.

Finally, after spending most of our RMBs, we returned to our hotel for some rest before going out again for dinner.

Ooops... my cheongsam!!!!! We sent my parents and shopping bags back to the hotel then went to Luohu to pick up the dress. Having picked up my cheongsam, we did what we'd normally do whenever and wherever possible: took a ride on the MRT.

This time however, we were a bit daring as we did not bring any map with us. Hence, we had to rely on our gut feeling to find our way back to the hotel. We nearly gave up and wanted to just take a taxi at one point. But then... Surprise, surprise: WE SUCCEEDED in finding our way back to our hotel on foot!