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What should I get from China?

Blogs > OgreFish
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OgreFish
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
United States19 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-17 05:49:04
April 17 2013 05:44 GMT
#1
So... I'm new to this blog thing, and my first idea was to ask a question. My friend is going to China for the summer, and he said he'd get me something from there. But alas, I don't know what's cool that I can get. Any recommendations? :D

*
Kaolla
Profile Joined January 2003
China2999 Posts
April 17 2013 06:01 GMT
#2
New smartphone/monitor (2560x1440)

Both way cheaper here than elsewhere...
If you want something with more cultural value, no idea
its me
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
April 17 2013 06:04 GMT
#3
I thought electronics costs more in China. Unless you want to get a local brand or smuggled goods with no warranty.
Rillanon.au
Chairman Ray
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States11903 Posts
April 17 2013 06:08 GMT
#4
I would recommend getting tea. There's a lot of really amazing Chinese teas that don't get shipped internationally or are at least hard to find.
Jindo
Profile Joined July 2011
United States1305 Posts
April 17 2013 06:14 GMT
#5
Perhaps an authentic Chinese Silk comforter?
T.O.P. *
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Hong Kong4685 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-17 06:30:33
April 17 2013 06:29 GMT
#6
Nothing. There's no reason to get anything branded from China, as branded items cost less in western markets. Unless your friend is a local, he's probably gonna get swindled. Don't get any food items either, food safety is a problem in a country without much regulations.
Oracle comes in, Scvs go down, never a miscommunication.
mdb
Profile Blog Joined February 2003
Bulgaria4059 Posts
April 17 2013 06:35 GMT
#7
China girl!
BreAKerTV
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
Taiwan1658 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-17 07:14:40
April 17 2013 07:12 GMT
#8
Chinese SC2 account. How does one accomplish this? buy four different China Unicom Code Cards that are worth 50 RMB each (or simply find a way to get 200 RMB on a single China Unicom card), then follow these steps here...

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=309287

You now own the world's cheapest retail copy of SC2 and Heart of the Swarm. GG.
Retired caster / streamer "BingeHD". Digital Nomad.
ETisME
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
12621 Posts
April 17 2013 08:01 GMT
#9
I think word art would be nice, but obviously he can't get the super high quality ones but they really are nice to look at imo.
chinese characters have so much history in them that even if you can't understand it, you can kinda appreciate it.

+ Show Spoiler +

[image loading]

chinese tea is also quite recommended, they have their own unique taste to it
其疾如风,其徐如林,侵掠如火,不动如山,难知如阴,动如雷震。
Cambium
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
United States16368 Posts
April 17 2013 08:13 GMT
#10
A generalization that's mostly true: anything worth buying is overpriced in China.

Having said that, if you are into arts and crafts, there is some cool stuff worth looking into, like silk, enamel, porcelain, jade, etc. Again, all very expensive, but at least unique to some degree.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
opterown *
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Australia54784 Posts
April 17 2013 08:16 GMT
#11
cheap, fake clothes are decent if you have space (some are quite well made)
ModeratorRetired LR Bonjwa
TL+ Member
felisconcolori
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
United States6168 Posts
April 17 2013 08:35 GMT
#12
One of my former conductors spoke well of Chinese musical instruments. (Not the typical 4 - he was talking about ~$400 bassoons of good quality, as well as other concert and orchestral instruments. For comparison, a student bassoon starts around $2k.)

Might not be too practical. Trade tea bricks would be nice, though.
Yes, I email sponsors... to thank them. Don't post drunk, kids. My king, what has become of you?
Burrfoot
Profile Blog Joined July 2012
United States1176 Posts
April 17 2013 11:47 GMT
#13
Every time my mom asks me this question I always say : 12 lbs of the sweet ham jerky!!!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Davlok-1847/career
Kaolla
Profile Joined January 2003
China2999 Posts
April 17 2013 13:27 GMT
#14
On April 17 2013 15:04 haduken wrote:
I thought electronics costs more in China. Unless you want to get a local brand or smuggled goods with no warranty.


local brands indeed, but a Xiaomi phone for instance is pretty damn awesome and way cheaper than anything in the west with similar specs (maybe Nexus 4 excluded)... And for the monitor yea also local brand, but they use LG panels which are good quality ...

Furthermore pretty much everything that is said here is true... Branded stuff = expensive... Maybe the tea is a good idea, but then again this is China, you never know what kinda poison is in there
its me
B.I.G.
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
3251 Posts
April 17 2013 14:54 GMT
#15
the buddhist bracelet is cool. although not specifically from china i think..
Pulimuli
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Sweden2766 Posts
April 17 2013 15:09 GMT
#16
a child!
Shortizz
Profile Joined July 2011
Singapore129 Posts
April 17 2013 16:14 GMT
#17
Try not to get anything there.
Lokk
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
Canada635 Posts
April 17 2013 20:26 GMT
#18
hello kitty :3
@Lokk_2/Go Woori 우리
isleyofthenorth
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Austria894 Posts
April 17 2013 20:47 GMT
#19
If i went to china id probably buy kilos of tea
itsjustatank
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Hong Kong9164 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-17 21:57:52
April 17 2013 21:57 GMT
#20
tea and tailored (bespoke) clothing

basically the perfect time for you to get a suit and other formal stuff done
Photographer"nosotros estamos backamos" - setsuko
ieatkids5
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
United States4628 Posts
April 17 2013 22:22 GMT
#21
get some throwing knives and maybe a sword. a slick one for swift cuts, or a bigass ceremonial one would be cool too. a traditional bow with arrows would probably be pretty boss as well.

or get some fancy wall scrolls with epic poems and other calligraphy. that's some classy shit right there.
EtherealDeath
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States8366 Posts
April 17 2013 22:27 GMT
#22
a chinese gf to suck your soul away.
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-18 04:24:18
April 18 2013 04:16 GMT
#23
On April 17 2013 22:27 Kaolla wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 17 2013 15:04 haduken wrote:
I thought electronics costs more in China. Unless you want to get a local brand or smuggled goods with no warranty.


local brands indeed, but a Xiaomi phone for instance is pretty damn awesome and way cheaper than anything in the west with similar specs (maybe Nexus 4 excluded)... And for the monitor yea also local brand, but they use LG panels which are good quality ...

Furthermore pretty much everything that is said here is true... Branded stuff = expensive... Maybe the tea is a good idea, but then again this is China, you never know what kinda poison is in there


XiaoMi and Oppo phones are the shitz... however problem again is that no warranty support afterwards and no idea about updates but Oppo is getting some rave for their constant updating but that could also mean their software is not mature.

Chinese Tea are srsly overrated, this isn't 1800 anymore people... China do not make the best tea anymore. But i guess they can be good for gifts as most come with fancy looking packagings...

I would have a look at getting some rice wine or Baiju, go for the local ones, the Shanxi Fenju is very nice and very hard to fine outside of China.

Also look at getting some dinner wares... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingdezhen <== I have a set from there, very nice, but they are kinda pricy though.

Plushy toys like mashmaru etc.. are also cheaper there if you are into that kinda of things... When i go back, I get some plushy for my car.
Rillanon.au
babylon
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
8765 Posts
April 18 2013 04:20 GMT
#24
If you're a small guy, clothing.
chaosfreak11
Profile Joined April 2011
Singapore367 Posts
April 18 2013 11:07 GMT
#25
You should try the tea from China. The more popular tea would be TieGuanYin and Jasmine. If you are up for black tea pu-er is also great.
Cambium
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
United States16368 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-18 11:42:56
April 18 2013 11:37 GMT
#26
Seriously, unless you know what you are doing when buying tea (and most don't, locals included), you will be completely ripped off.

'Good' tea is marketed like cigarettes in China, it's mostly for gifts and not consumption, and hence the exorbitant price.

Edit:

To elaborate on that last point and kind of a tangential rant:

It's not just gifts are supposed to expensive. In China, everyone knows how much things cost, or at least the ballpark, and so you have things expensive for the sake of being expensive, because expensive is good. You are literally buying things because they are expensive and not for the goods themselves; because gifting expensive gifts indicates,
1) you are rich
2) you care
3) combining above: face, subtly gloating, just the right amount

And of course, you recycle gifts.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Milkis
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
5003 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-18 16:18:14
April 18 2013 16:14 GMT
#27
On April 18 2013 20:07 chaosfreak11 wrote:
You should try the tea from China. The more popular tea would be TieGuanYin and Jasmine. If you are up for black tea pu-er is also great.


Just a minor point: Puerh isn't a "black tea" in the western sense, although it is referred to as such in China. (Western black tea = red tea)

When buying puerh avoid the mini tuochas. Those are where all the shitty grade leaves go and are often so highly compressed it's pretty much dust. The ones you want are cakes. If you try to buy these from a store, note that chances are a lot of the store people selling it to you won't know what they're talking about either. Should be going for larger nests or cakes.

Puerh is kind of crazy hard to get "good" tea out of unless you're intimately familiar with it which most people are not since puerh is really complex. Also it's also hard to get a good cake cause anything that has a reputation has a billion people buying it and speculating on it to drive the price insanely high.

TGY is quite popular though. See if you can sample and avoid the ones that have really good fragrance but tastes very light -- those are actually pretty bad far you. TGY got quite popular a few years ago and since then there are some really shady teas that are processed in a way to bring out fragrance at the cost of like, everything else because a lot of people who dont know what they're doing will purchase on fragrance alone).

But yeah you should avoid buying tea unless you know what you're doing since getting good tea in China and not getting ripped off is pretty hard to do unless you really know what you're doing. You can try going to famous tea house chains that do have quite a good reputation but they will be overpriced for the quality you get but it's not that terrible since you at least get pretty decent tea out of it.

and lol@poster who said chinese teas are overrated.
ieatkids5
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
United States4628 Posts
April 18 2013 18:43 GMT
#28
i feel like buying tea, in this case, is a pretty lost cause. like people have been saying, if you dont know your tea, you're gonna get ripped off. but that's not the big issue here. the problem is that most people cant tell the difference between good tea and average tea. it's like anything that comes only with a lot of experience and dedication. most people can't tell the difference between an 18 year old single cask scotch whiskey and some cheap kentucky bourbon. or a pair of $800 denon headphones and their $80 entry-level model.

there's no point in a regular person who is not that interested in tea to go out of his way to get some good quality chinese tea. unless that person really likes tea and wants to get a good taste and understanding of what's out there. then, the best way is to sample lots of different teas at the lower price levels and work his way up.
Aelonius
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Netherlands432 Posts
April 18 2013 21:16 GMT
#29
On April 17 2013 15:01 Kaolla wrote:
New smartphone/monitor (2560x1440)

Both way cheaper here than elsewhere...
If you want something with more cultural value, no idea


I've seen the difference being about 50 dollar tops between products, and then when you're going home you may end up paying the import tax (30% of retail price) which leads you to be higher anyways.

I would just say.. get something typical from that region. When I left China after living there, my friends gave me tea and little gifts from their hometown.
''The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.''—Ronald Reagan
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