Travels Beyond Hanoi: China

I realised recently that I haven't really posted much about my travels outside Hanoi. So here is my effort at providing a concise but informative post about my recent trip to Southern China.

Here's the number one observation:

Young Chinese men love purses. Or man-purses or murses. Whatever you prefer to call them. Whereas in Montreal only a select few men would dare stroll around will a shiny-white Gucci bag (I'm thinking of one particular friend here), in China they were everywhere. I couldn't walk on the sidewalk in Guangzhou without being whacked by a Prada purse strapped underneath the arm of a tall Chinese 20-something in Capri pants yakking away on his touch-screen mobile phone.

And here's my second observation:

Clothes are cheap, stylish and plentiful. Whereas in Montreal I usually avoid clothes with a 'made in China' tag in favour of something more local... in China, this is local! Guangzhou (also known as Canton) is a huge clothing manufacturing city. Diep led me to the area full of 'fashion cities', buildings with hundreds of sellers wanting you to buy the latest knock-offs of DSquared and D&G for about $5-10 USD a pair. Hell yeah! And a new pair of shoes for under $20?? I'll take three - and I did.

The fashion district in Guangzhou, China

Although my trip didn't go exactly as planned (this will be the subject of another post), I am really happy with this entirely new wardrobe I've come home with. I didn't even spend more than $150!