Foreign Students = Frequent customers in Pawnshops in China?

[Ian_Lee]

"10 years east of the river; 10 years west of the river".

It used to be that students from Asia, including those from PRC; study on a shoestring budget and need to do part time work when they attend college in North America, Europe and Japan.

Now it seems foreign students in Mainland China face the same predicament:

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/060213/195/2ule8.html

According to the report, foreign students are now frequent customers in pawnshops in China. And they are not coming from 3rd world countries. Many of them come from East Asian countries like Korea, Japan and Philippines. Some are from U.S. and Europe. And even some diplomats go to the pawnshops too.

Most of these foreign customers are female college students.

The belongings that they cashed in the pawnshops are: pocket pc, digital camera, cell phone, watch and ring.

They use the cash to pay for tuition, air ticket or tour expense.

[roddy]

Number of foreign students in China increases, number of foreign students using pawn shops increases. Hardly news. You might as well do a story on the increasing number of foreign students going to restaurants or buying shoes.

[trevelyan]

Where else should foreigners go if they want to sell used things quickly and make some cash? I guess you could advertise on campus, but that can be a hassle too.

[confucius]

Where are these pawn shops, in Beijing for example? Where was that study done? How do they know the shoppers are foreign students and not young Russian traders?

New products in China are so cheap; I can't see why even a student would want something used unless it's a collectible item.