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Korea (South)17174 Posts
I knew absolutely nothing about China before going. Infact I didn't even plan anything about this trip. Spunky took care of our visa's somehow and set up all the plans for a weeks trip to Shanghai and Beijing. All I knew was all of the sudden I found myself with my luggage, passport, and ticket headed for the airport in Seoul with Spunky and Giyom. It hadn't even hit me that I was about to experience a whole new bunch of stuff. I didn't care though...spirits were high as Giyom and I had just taken first and second in a 64 man casino tourney the previous day earning a combined 15k in a freeroll hosted by a company trying to make a World Poker Tour kinda thing for Asia (/brag). Spirits were high and there I sat just like a dumb and oblivious dog who just got a t-bone steak for dinner.
"NE HOW NE HOW NE HOW," blast tiny Chinese people in a packed street of Shanghai. "YOU WANNA T-SHIRT? HELLO! T-SHIRT!" The streets were loud, bustling, people were driving their cars even more insanely and in breach of traffic laws than even koreans could ever dream of. On a warm day we strolled through a Chinese ancient mansion built by some rich dude for his parents. I have no idea what the name of it was. Infact I didn't care at all. I'm not much of a sight-seer myself but...what was that? Frog on a stick, Birds on a stick. Mmmmmm tasty now thats interesting. As we slowly waded through the sea of people which was about 10% non asians. This was day 1 of the adventure and I wasn't sure what to think about China at this point. The city of Shanghai is very grand itself. A city ten times larger than Seoul (though only about the same population) and it had huge magnificent buildings anywhere. Seoul is all that I can compare China to right now so if you don't know anything about either than tough luck. The city itself as a whole was very grand, but at the microscopic levels it was extremely dirty. All the taxi's were scrubby old Volkswagens with huge cages designed to protect the driver from the passengers. "DVD? DVD? YOU WANNA DVD? 50 CENTS A DVD!" Is whispered or yelled by creepy looking chinese guys in semi formal streets all over the place. The people themselves looked very similar to Koreans from my ignorant perspective...except shorter, their language is uglier, and absolutely no good looking girls anywhere. After visiting that market/mansion we went to some skyscraper tower thingy that is the symbol of Shanghai. It itself was impressive but once we got to the top the view was pretty ugly. It was semi cloudy, there was some polution, and most of the buildings looked dirty. After having our first chinese meal we called it a day. God damn that shit is oily I was praying to god that I did not get diarrhea.
"How much is this dress shirt?" "ONLY 480 WEN (wen yawen RMB, WHATEVER it is...CHINESE money and 100 wen = about 12 or 13$) YOU KNOW BEST QUALITY OKAY?" Says a girl that must be no older than 16 working at a bustling shopping zone of Shanghai that only sells fake goods. I was informed that you should pay no more than their initial offer divided by six. "I'll give you 80" "NO NO NO NO NO NO," says the girl as she busts out a hand held calculator, "OK HERE FINAL OFFER 350 YOU BUY OK? BEST QUALITY HELLO!"
"80."
"300 OK?"
"80."
"250 BECAUSE YOU HANDSOME"
"80."
"I LIKE YOU YOU MY FRIEND 200 OK?"
"80."
"200 ONLY I CAN FINAL OFFER HELLO OK? YOU BUY!"
"You're annoying me now, 70."
"WHAT NOW YOU SAY 70 HAHA OK HEY HEY 200 PLEASE BUY!"
"60."
*Confused chinese girl squint* "HEY HEY NO JOKE MAN FINAL OFFER YOU GIVE"
*Rekrul starts to walk away* "OK OK OK 60 GOOD YOU BUY 60."
I still feel like I overpaid for that peice of crap rip off jacket. The market had everything you could imagine. All sorts of clothes, fake sunglasses which break after 2 days, hats, swords, chinese collectables, pokemon trading cards, swords, luggage. You name it the Chinese can fake it. This experience was definitely the best part of the trip. Arguing over mere dollars not because I wanna save a few bucks but merely because it's fun as hell. I could see white people getting ripped off everywhere. So many of them had absolutely no idea how to negotiate for fake stuff. There was an indian guy in the socks place negotiating trying to get 10 pairs of socks for ten bucks. The price started at like 20 but he was trying his best but at the same time trying to be courteous. He was a complete fish. Then giyom walks in grabs 5 pairs of socks and hands the girl two dollars without saying anything and just walks away. The girl selling the stuff froze for a second and then let out a huge smile as if to say "Ok this guy knows whats up may as well not fight it." Meanwhile the indian dude is standing there looking back and forth at the girl and giyom, scratching his head wondering what the hell is going on and what just happened. They have these kinds of places all over China. I went once in Shanghai and once in Beijing.
Later that night we got to see our first chinese club. Chinese clubs are more like a combination of a club and a bar. They play a variation of hip-hop music and trance. We went to some place called "Baby Face." The place was packed by 9 PM. It was very very nice looking on the interior and had a dance floor and seats ranging from a shitty barstool table to a big fancy room with couches. We opted to get a big room which we had to share half half with someone else who came which was one chinese young guy and four girls. When trying to say hi to the guy when he came into the room he just kinda looked and then looked away. He was very shy at first. After one hour of drinking he finally came around and was slamming shots saying "SHANGHAI BEST GIRL OK? SHANGHAI NUMBER ONE. MY FATHER USA OK?" But, tired from the long day we opted to go home fairly early.
First impressions of china at this point: It smells bad here. Ugly girls here. Ugly Language. Dirty landscape. Lots of fake shit. But for some reason Shanghai overall was a great experience and I love the place. It was probably the fact that everyone is so friendly and smiley compared to Korean people so that was incredibly refreshing.
We then headed to Beijing for a 3 and a half day partying and drinking binge. Beijing felt more cleanly than Shanghai and there were bars and clubs all over just like in Seoul. I won't bother explaining all of this because all their is to it is drinking drinking drinking. Though, our final day we got to see the Great Wall of China in the morning, some manner fake lake some ancient king built, eat dinner in a rotating tower, and then go drinking again. Tour at day party at night. What a great trip!
On our way back to the airport we were already almost late and our cab broke down in the middle of a 6 lane highway. Some chinese guy was nice enough to stop his car, let the three of us in with all of our luggage and take us to the airport. Not only that, but we forgot a book in his cab and he ran all the way into the airport 15 minutes later just to give it to us. A little peice of random genuine kindness was icing on the cake.
Thank you for reading,
Rekrul
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One of them's a genius, the other's insane.
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bingo
korea > china? seems that way to me, but i've never been to either
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Nice read.
Lucky i want to go to china.
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Really cool stuff there :D
I like the way you dress btw.
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Hanging out with Giyom > all.
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Then giyom walks in grabs 5 pairs of socks and hands the girl two dollars without saying anything and just walks away.
BM!
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reeeeeeeeeeeeeekrul =o
"80."
"300 OK?"
"80."
"250 BECAUSE YOU HANDSOME"
"80."
"I LIKE YOU YOU MY FRIEND 200 OK?"
"80."
"200 ONLY I CAN FINAL OFFER HELLO OK? YOU BUY!"
"You're annoying me now, 70."
"WHAT NOW YOU SAY 70 HAHA OK HEY HEY 200 PLEASE BUY!"
"60."
*Confused chinese girl squint* "HEY HEY NO JOKE MAN FINAL OFFER YOU GIVE"
*Rekrul starts to walk away* "OK OK OK 60 GOOD YOU BUY 60."
That's the best part of it! haha
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Buy a dozen Louis Vuitton handbags for your future girlfriends...
Now make sure you buy the most expensive fake ones (which should be around 200 Yuan each), they'll never tell the difference... Some of my mom's friends return to China periodically just to buy those shit -_-;;
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Sounds like you guys had a great time. Where's Elky?
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I recommend you go into the countryside/smaller cities if you think Shanghai is dirty/ugly.
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hen giyom walks in grabs 5 pairs of socks and hands the girl two dollars without saying anything and just walks away.
haha awesome 
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1) need pics ... ah well, opera doesn't display them ...
2) why not post this as a news
or
2) why not making a own site/blog?
3) thanks for the story
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Nice post. I was in Beijing for 10 days and my sister used to bargain forever with the people in the shops. Why is the Chinese guy look so out of it and so red in the last picture?
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Korea (South)17174 Posts
he's korean and he's just drunk
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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
On March 31 2006 22:00 HowitZer wrote:
Why is the Chinese guy look so out of it and so red in the last picture?
That's Spunky, former korean pro  .
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O man you're so butcherd as a poor tourist T___T
Yes china is THE grand collections of bad tastes 
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nice nice
giyom looks very old now :D
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haha this was just what i asked for. looks like rek got some, gj.
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nice life man congratz, dunno why ure bitter all the time u should be a happy dude
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3 weeks ago my english teacher took a 1 week vacation to Shanghai & beijing coincidentally. He said the food sucked, people were nice, and restrooms sucked. I dunno if i wanna go to china.
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Australia4514 Posts
I loved the food when i went to china. I agree it is really fatty, but after long periods of korean food, such a dramatic change was awesome.
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Belgium9949 Posts
koreans eat rice
chinese people eat rice
whats the difference
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Good read nice prespective, Giyom is still sexy
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hahahhahaha 60 rmb for a fake jacket ??? ahahhaha you got owned rekrul.
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yeah giyom doesn't look older. he looks sexier and more mature
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51507 Posts
oh man i bet you that cab driver knew you guys or something hahaha
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I wouldn't buy fake materials from China even if it's cheap.. My friend was attending a university in Shanghai for a year and when he came back, he was boasting about all these brands materials including Ferragamo, Louis Vuiton and Emporio Armani and I kindly explained in details the differences between the original and the fake ones. His face went red but didn't give in and kept insisting that they were real. Imagine wearing one of those fake shirts to Juliana and get owned by some girl pointing it out. Now that's humiliation.
However the fake ones are graded from B~ A+ and A+ones are usually more expensive. I admit it is harder to distinguish from original ones with A+ grade ones.
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yah! there are some fake ones that are sooooooooooo perfect
i once bought 2 rolex watches ( fake ) but u could not tell the difference.
and ..well. i think there's one hot chick on that pic =)
not thaat bad
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On April 01 2006 04:26 haduken wrote:
hahahhahaha 60 rmb for a fake jacket ??? ahahhaha you got owned rekrul.
it's still nothing.
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what is the big deal about these fake things? I woudn't want to wear them, i'd hate to give off the idea that i spend money on overpriced clothing and accessoires. And while i can see the joy in saving up and then buying something you really want, buying a fake version to give off the same idea is just silly. As if it's normal that a student wears a rolex and armani clothes.
nice trip tho, i'd love to visit china as well as korea...
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Why are you still in Korea? You asian lover. ~_~
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
Rek i love the last picture.. mmmm china or manila, well at least in Manila i got a tan
^^
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"All sorts of clothes, fake sunglasses which break after 2 days, hats, swords, chinese collectables, pokemon trading cards, swords, luggage. You name it the Chinese can fake it."
this sentance cracks me up
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Oh yeah, right, fake chinese stuff is bad.
I suggest check "made in" labels on your stuff. it might just be that most of your stuff is from china.
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Baltimore, USA22258 Posts
Ahahahah, great story Rek, sounds like a great time... thanks for sharing!
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nice trip :D
but yo man those girls are really UGLY!! there are lots of much hotter chicks in China
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hong kong owns, id recommend going there if you stay in one of the more affluent areas.
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United States5262 Posts
Rekrul should just have his own section at TL.net like the Rekrul Rant or the Rekrul everyotherweekly.
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Nice read. You are a really good writer in some kind of way. It grabs your attention or something. Really sweet reading, keep it up.
I love fake stuff. Just love it, have some T-shirts that were suprisingly high quality and look as new even after 4years of use. Some last for a week.
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call me up next time u go to china. i show u cool place.
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i always like fake ones, why spend lots of $$$ for a real one? ur money goes into those companies whcih are paying their workers 20cents/for each cloth made. They are actually making tones of money from both their workers and you!
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good times. ive never been to china although my friends go there all the time. there doesn't seem to be anything of interest there for me though.
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This is an april fool ? And all the pics are faked !
I'm such a fucking IDIOT..
=(
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On April 01 2006 08:54 Kacas wrote:
yah! there are some fake ones that are sooooooooooo perfect
i once bought 2 rolex watches ( fake ) but u could not tell the difference.
and ..well. i think there's one hot chick on that pic =)
not thaat bad
Fake ones tick and break after like 2 days right?
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haha rekrul you are a certainly a good story-teller, cant hold that against you.
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