Shopping - Packing - Clothes

[Harvey]

Hello all,

Curious, my clothes now are really work oriented... When I go to China I'll be a student again, so I'll need some student-ish clothes.

Would I be better off buying my clothes in my home country before going over, or waiting until I get to China to buy a few seaters and tshirts?

I imagine things are much cheaper in China than Japan or the US, is that true for clothes? Is there anything about the quality that would make anyone recommend I buy my stuff before going?

Thanks for any tips!

- Harvey

[mlomker]

Clothing is cheap, the quality is low, and the laundry process is hard on clothing...so nothing lasts very long. At least that's what I've gathered from my blog reading.

If you are of an average build (Chinese-sized, in other words) then you may just want to wait until you get there. US $5 shirts are everywhere. Someone suggested bringing workout-type clothing for the summer (the kind that wicks away sweat). It can get really hot, depending upon where you'll be living.

[malinuo]

As mlomker said, clothes can be of poor quality in China. I'd buy at least half of the clothes you intend to use in Japan to have some things of decent quality, and then buy the rest cheap in China. I hate buying clothes myself, so I brought everything with me from France, so I wouldn't have to walk around in China trying to find the best deals.

I'm sure there are ways to get high quality clothes in China, if you look for them, but I didn't look for them and all I stumbled upon was inferior quality to what I brought from France.

[geraldc]

You can wear work/smart clothes as a student... Not all students choose to wear T shirts all the time, some even wear shirts with a collar that need to be ironed once in a while

[Harvey]

Thanks for the tips. I'll be sure I have a few pairs of jeans and some quality shirt/sweaters before I go over.

I plan to go to JILIN in chengchun, I hear it can be up to -30 C in the winter.

Maybe I should buy some long johns... and some of those wrap around ear warmers...

[md1101]

i would certainly wait till i got to china. the quality of the """"name brands"""" there have really come to a high standard. if you're going to shanghai then you'll be set (just go to the xiangyang markets on xiangyang lu). they'll be closing that place down in a few months but that place is a haven for some great cheap good quality """"name brand"""" clothes. just don't buy stuff that really relies on quality like shoes or bags (if you're travelling a lot and moving around they'll wear down pretty quick). but the shoes can always be bought in the big department stores there which are on par with western quality and maybe about 60% of the price (though it'll seem damn expensive compared to what you'll get used to paying in china).the only thing i think you should buy overseas is maybe a good quality backpackers bag. because you can never trust whether the goods in the back packer stores are real or fake in china.

if you want to be fashionable... don't buy northface. everyone will know where you got it. and every second foreigner has a northface jacket.

as a rough guide the prices i get (though some may say i got ripped off) are generally:

t-shirt: 30 ~ 50 kuai

jeans: 70 ~ 80 kuai

large spider jacket: 220 kuai

socks: 5 kuai a pair

boxer shorts: 20 kuai each

[Lu]

Some of the things I bought in China were very low-quality, some T-shirts I'm still wearing now, 3 years after I bought them. It varies, but most things are so cheap that it's a much better idea to buy clothes in China. Except what Mickdriscoll says, things like shoes and a backpack.

As to longjohns and other warm clothes, I am 100% sure you can buy them in all sizes and colors in Jilin. The locals need them too. Unless you're arriving in midwinter and need them as soon as you get off the plane, you'd best just buy them there.

[Harvey]

Come to think of it, I bought some shoes no a trip to Bejing once, and they crapped out on me in less than a year...

Yesterday a Chinese friend reminded me that Chengchun is COLD COLD COLD... I think I might be arriving in November.

[mlomker]

Well, living in Minnesota, I'm not terribly impressed by the 'cold' temperatures that I hear about in dongbei. That being said, I've been told that the heating system in most apartments is not up to Western standards. It sounds like the problem will be more the heating than the outside temp.

[malinuo]

I have no direct experience of this myself, but people have told me that even the brand names in China are of inferior quality. The alleged system is that they to a large part are produced in China. The products are then sorted, so the best specimens go to the West, while the poor quality stuff ends up in sold in the brand name stores in China. It is possible, but I repeat: I have no confirmation of this.

Then there are a lot of things with Western brand names that are pure fakes of course.

For winter clothes I wouldn't hesitate to wait until you get to China though. It is probably difficult to get good clothes in Japan for really cold weather, as it rarely gets very cold in most of Japan. Even a low quality Chinese winter coat is (usually) warm. If it wears out somewhat faster than a Western one, so what? You will use it for a limited time anyhow.