Ni hao all!
I very recently had a friend to stay with me in Hong Kong and in addition to doing all things Hong Kong touristas we also decided to head over the border into China for a bit of pampering and retail therapy (ahem! not sure about the therapy part) in neighboring city Shenzhen.
THE PLACE
For those of you that know little of Shenzhen let me (and the gremlins of Wikipedia) take this moment to enlighten you! Shenzer as I like to call it is situated immediately north of Hong Kong and has gone from being a small fishing village called Baoan County in the 1970’s to being one of the fastest growing cities in the world. On entering Shenzer you get this sense of how quickly the city has grown and it is immediately clear that you are in a place where things happen fast. Be prepared for lots of people, intense pollution and being hassled frequently ‘missy missy what you buy handbag watches? ‘missy missy you like shopping’ uhhhh duh does Dolly Parton sleep on her back? There is a real sense of chaos on arrival however and although you’ll most likely be fine you would do well to keep your wits about you at all times.
HOW TO GET THERE
If travelling from Hong Kong we found, after a little bit of researching that the best way to get to Shenzer is via the wonderful Hong Kong MTR. You can take the light blue line (no idea what it is called) from Hung Hom through to Lo Wu and takes about 45 mins. If you haven’t already got your visa you will then have to walk up some stairs, fill out a form, pay about 400RMB, collect your visa and be on your merry way. Job’s a good ‘un.
THE SPA
Queens Spa is the wall mart of spa's - a 5 floor pampering extravaganza that offers everything from massages to karaoke rooms to electrolysis on your hairy bits. Ouch! The entrance fee is RMB 108 although if you spend more that RMB 168 then this fee gets waivered – boom ting! Most of the staff doesn’t speak Ingrish however there is always an English speaking duty manager on hand if you just ask who are friendly and helpful. On arrival you are handed a rather fetching pair of pink pajama’s and a wrist tag that lets you add your bill to your ‘number’. In Queens Spa everything is a number – I was a number, my masseuse was a number, the treatment I had, my food, literlly everything and this combined with the pajama suit gave me an impression of what it must be like to go into prison!
However, prison it was not….we started off with a lovely ramen supper followed by a good aromatherapy massage. We then moved to the lazyboy chairs in the ‘rest room’ of which there are probably about 400 or so each equipped with their very own massage function and TV. Whilst watching TV I then got my feet scrapped by a man who used a knife (yes a knife!!) to scrape all the dead skin off my feet (ewwwww) and then finish off with a foot massage. Lovely jubbly. Here is a picture of those lazyboys....
The spa also boasts free unlimited fruits, juices and ice cream and even free sleeping quarter which we took rather than pay for a separate hotel. Dorm rooms are separate for men and women and consist of little pods with a pillow and duvet included. As you are sharing a dorm room with others at the spa it’s not super quiet however by the time we arrived we were all massaged out and slept soundly. It’s not luxury but if you are keen to save a few bob then worth doing.
The following morning we had a few more treatments, a cheeky swim, steam and sauna before reluctantly handing back our stripy pajama’s paying our bill and heading back to reality…….
THE SHOPPING
The main attraction for Shenzer is fakes, particularly handbags. Now if you are mere pauper like me in the splendorous luxuriousness of Hong Kong then getting your mitts on a fulberry (fake mulberry) is a bit of a must! If you are a visitor, definitely worth a trip as no one at home will know the difference and therefore think it is real and earn you real fashionista brownie points and jealous shocked looks of wonderment from your friends. Boom.
Head to the Lowu commercial centre pictured above and have a good search around before you wait for your bartering battle to commence…..we took the following tactical approach. As there were 4 of us we scoped out a few shops before deciding which one looked to have the best quality fake goods…and yes I am aware of the irony of this statement. We then went about requesting which handbags we wanted to look at, which takes a while but is a good thing because the shopkeepers get very excited that they are about to make a killing (we were however very careful NOT to mention which ones we were DEFINITELY going to buy)
To add to this role play of bargaining and selling there is also the added complication of undercover police walking about so often the shop owners will take the bags they are about to sell and go and hide them, useful when one is trying to decide between a brown or grey miu miu grrrr…anyway I had my heart set on trying to find a Celine, I needed to pick up a fulberry and a chanel and my visiting friend got very carried away and was considering 6 handbags! Boys, I know you will never understand this logic.
Then came the bargaining. Our shop keeper was quite whiny and was working the ‘my boss wont let me’ ‘I won’t make profit’ lines but we were no fools and like firm business women with black 80’s shoulder padded suits and bold red lipstick we stood our ground. The deal clincher which happened (admittedly by accident but worked a charm) was that another friend of ours had gone to buy a different bag in another shop she then returned to the shop we were still bargaining in and loudly said how much she had paid for her bag, we all got excited and began to follow her out when lo and behold…..our shopkeeper buckled to the prices we had requested. Hooray! I felt like I was in an episode of the apprentice…..Sir Alan, you would have been proud. And to boot I skipped to Hong Kong immigration with my Celine and my friend with her 6 bags.
TIPS
1. Get your RMB to pay for your visa at the Central HSBC Building in Hong Kong where they have an ATM that will give you Chinese moulah this makes your visa process (if you don’t already have one) swift and easy
2. Try and go on a weekday, I went on a Sunday once and it was quite simply a hell on earth….…
3. If you wish to travel anywhere in a taxi and don’t speak Mandarin then try and get the directions/location written down in Chinese – will reduce the amount of gesticulating the movements of a massage which could look dodgy and get you into a bit of trouble. Never a good move.
Only having 24 hours in Shenzer was a real shame as I know I only scratched the surface of what this city has to offer, there are also other attractions including a theme park and sea world and I'm told there is even grass somewhere. It is however to my mind a place that you do need to mentally and physically prepare yourself for and not the idyllic luxury girlie day out that one would hope for or expect in HK, London or NY. Shenzer really is a place that you don’t want to be very long but the price what you come back with makes it worthwhile, Mulberry’s, soft feet, a new appreciation for personal space etc….therefore my best advice - Get in, get your shit done, get out!
V xx
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