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Q: Why you foreigners spend more money on eatting in fancy resturants?
Why most foreigners I have seen spent lots of money eatting in fancy resturants and five star hotels but only spend a bit money on buying cheap clothes and shoes?
Sure, and Chinese never order 2x or 3x what they will actually eat... Why I see long queue of Chinese to eat in fancy restaurants ? We go to restaurant, eating for 150/200 RMB about once a week, both my wife and me simply enjoy trying new food, and finer things than what we can cook by ourselves. We can both cook, but simple things. We buy mostly local food, few imported stuffs. We spend about 100 RMB/week in wine. Wine is part of my native culture, and now my wife enjoy a glass of wine,
I wear Decathlon, Uniloqo, or H&M, because it looks like I want : plain, discrete, comfortable. I don't feel like proving myself by dressing, I just want to feel comfortable yet stay discrete. I have zero interest in a car here, I see it as troubles while it fullfill none of my needs.
I prefer spending more in travels, books, and recently, and later, music (instruments, studio hardware). I save money to buy a nice home... not a flat, a home, with a garden, with things like proper insulation, plumbing, and so on, so that my future kids have a nice place that they will remember fondly when growing up. Life is short, live it comfortably if you have the chance to do so 
Strawberry66:
Only 150/200rmb eatting out on weekend is not living fancy.
Why do you Chinese spend more money on iphones and showoff brand name bags etc and then only spend a little on the cheapest food?
Priorities. People have different priorities , it's just life.
Strawberry66:
Hahaha...True I understand that.I usually buy branded clothes because of better design andbetter quality,I don't buy stuffs to show off.Another main reason I shop in big brand shop is I can avoid to have sales to follow me around like bees.Haha.I find it is super annoying.
dom87:
who told you brand clothes are better quality? Bought jack and jones pullover for 400 RMB, next day had 2 holes...
all the clothes, street clothes, gucci shit probably come from the same factory, just with or without label
bill8899:
Local brands just cost more. No increase in quality. Found that out when I shopped for a coat.
Strawberry66:
Cant judge the whole quality just because to get a two hole clothes unluckily.
Why do you Chinese spend ALL your money a iPhone, or a fancy car leaving nothing left to enjoy life? What is the point of having an iPhone 6 if you can only afford to eat 3 yuan noodles for every meal?
For the clothes issue, most foreigners I know tend to buy clothes they like, regardless of the price. They will make their own judgment on what they like and then buy it, if its cheap then that's a bonus. Chinese people would rather have expensive clothes they don't actually like just to show off.
Strawberry66:
Many Chinese like showing off,but not all of them,some just like the new version iphone which just comes out and being hot minded to head to the iphone shop to buy it while they only can eat like 5 yuan noodle.I think it is not a good lifestyle.But goodness,I have seen so many foreigners only buy cheap clothes but eat in expensive resturants(150-1000rmb) every week,at least having lunch starts from 30-50rmb during normal working days.I just understand spent a bit morr on something they like more,but from what I found,the diffrence about spending on diffrent things are too extrem.
estern:
Most of us come from societies where we are a little more subtle, and make judgments about people based on all sorts of things, but mainly what they say and do. Chinese society is so primitive that people tend to be instantly judged based on how they look. Therefore people tend to spend a much higher percentage of their money on clothes and useless overpriced beauty products etc...
You can almost always tell if a Chinese person is genuinely wealthy or not. If I see someone who is clearly not rich, clutching a designer handbag, the first thing that runs through my head is "wow, what a classless peasant!". It's similar to the guys who grow a long finger nail to prove they are not a farmer. All this actually does is reinforce the fact that they are a peasant.
Eorthisio:
Agree with estern, many Chinese instantly judge people without having talked to them, without knowing them, their judgment is based only on external appearance, "Hahaha look at that black person, so dark, he/she is like farmers" or "look at that fat person hahaha", this is a very primitive and third-world mindset. Chinese often laugh at countries with a lower per-capita GDP than China but you people behave exactly like them and certainly not like first-world developed countries.
The result of this? The entire world laugh at Chinese. Don't think that Chinese people's primitive behavior is unknown to the rest of the world, your countrymen travel, emigrate and leave a bad taste to their host countries, more and more countries simply banned Chinese immigration in the past few years, many hotels around the world don't accept Chinese nationals anymore.
It doesn't matter how much money you have or spend, no one likes the way you think, no one respects and everybody look down at Chinese people's behavior.
Now to give you a taste of your own medicine, hahaha Chinese are peasants, they are so primitive, Chinese men have small dicks and Chinese women are ugly without makeup hahaha
laowaigentleman:
@eo
You're so hardcore, dude! That's a bit too harsh. My Chinese girlfriend is beautiful with or without makeup.
As for the dicks... well 
Strawberry66:
You are being too harsh.You think Chinese girls are ugly doesn't mean other foreign guys think the same. What a no brainer!
Eorthisio:
Strawberry66 aka. Vicky -> You didn't get the sense of my last sentence, laowaigentleman did and your blindly repeated his statement, time to go back to secondary and learn English.
Strawberry66:
You are such a annoying guy.You are just a German,not a native English speaker,in which you have no right to tell how is my English.
As for so far ,I have found out that lots of German being arrogant and you are a great example for it.So congrats on it.You win.dongbeiren:
Vicky, the fact that he's a German is irrelevant. He obviously speaks fluent English. Though I'll admit your less than fluent English (your English is fine by the way Vicky) is not really relevant. Why criticize you for not speaking perfect English when we can criticize you for being shallow, narcissistic, making ridiculous generalizations and failing to find your dream man at Burger King?
MissA:
Sorry Vicky, but Eorthisio's English is at or very near native level (can't remember ever seeing a single issue).
Different priorities. I enjoy eating and drinking well and having a comfortable lifestyle. I don't care about showing off but I'm happy to buy good qualityclothes that are useful to me. I have no use for comparing brand names to gain social status. If I buy a cashmere sweater it's only because I like it and I ignore Chinese who ask how much it costs. Or I explain that I got it in America for 75 bucks on sale when it would be 2000 rmb in China. If shoes brought me happiness I would buy more shoes.
Why do you keep coming back to this forum after getting kicked?
dongbeiren:
She got banned from every Burger King in SH for creeping on foreign men so now she hangs around fancy places.
You want to know why? I will TELL you why.
Because to be honest, "good quality clothes" in China is actually not that great of quality. Factories and companies have even admitted to sending the good quality stuff abroad and leaving the lower quality stuff (but telling Chinese it is high quality) here to be sold domestically.
Not only that, they add to the insult by raising the prices of these "luxury" items to 50-100% higher than you would pay in say... Hong Kong, New York or Paris for the same items of higher quality.
Chinese mostly don't know the difference because most haven't had the chance to live in another country and compare. Companies take advantage of this ignorance but most foreigners can't justify the costs to themselves.
When it comes to food... that's just simple. You have to pay more to get decent quality good in China. And even then you can't be sure. Eating poor food can cause severe health problems. Buying cheap clothes... very unlikely. It doesn't make sense to come to China and buy expensive stuff... China is known as the land of cheap good.
Let's say I get lucky and find a nice quality coat here in China that matches an nice outdoor Swiss or Canadian coat. I am still most likely paying double for it. No thanks.
Robk:
BTW - if you are Vicki, your English is getting better. So congrats on that.
Shabi thinks it's easy to find nice looking clothes in China when you're over 190cm. "Why his clothes not as nice as mine?" Great ability to see another's perspective, there. I must wear "obese princeling" shirts because I have bad taste or I'm just cheap, not because it was the only thing with long enough sleeves...
I don't usually spend a lot on clothes, true. I let my wife find things on taobao. Other foreigners place more value on appearance, but still have the same limited selection to choose from, here. Try having clothes custom made for a foreigner: "Oh, very different, very difficult!" Local clothesmakers smell a price-gouging opportunity, and refuse to work for normal prices.
So, I wear ugly-ish clothes, but you won't find me slurping noodles at your local witch's cauldron. Sorry, I mean Hot Pot restaurant. Part of the reason is that we want to pay for safer food, but a large part is also the people. I'd pay extra to eat a bowl of noodles in an almost empty restaurant, rather than sitting on a baby chair while being gawked at like a zoo animal by every delusional weirdo that happens to pass by. "Waiguoren! Hao gao le. HAAALLLOOOO!! Hehehe. Balabalabala waiguoren balabala Zhongwen balabala Meiguoren balabala."
Robk:
LMAO...
You noticed that too, did you? Whenever a foreigner is around, they all of the sudden need to prove to buddy that they are so sophisticated and know everything about wai guo and wai guo ren.
It's cute. Oh, and I tell my wife that (that people constantly gossip about us) and she is like no they don't. I am like yes, you guys talk about us almost constantly when we are around. Then she starts talking to her sister and I am like... "see you are doing it right now." And she is like... "no, we aren't" "Yes honey, I can speak putonghua remember..." lol
Eorthisio:
Robk -> OMG so true, then when they realize that you can speak putonghua they usually switch to some local barbaric dialect hahaha locals are so insecure, so afraid to be confronted by the foreigner face to face.
I like to answer in German when locals say hello to me to look smart in front of their friends, give them a taste of their own medicine, they can't do anything because they don't understand, instant alienation, they are lost, have a massive loss of face and walk away.
coineineagh:
i think that's just their desire to be carefree when they talk about you, like you were a toy. They like their foreigners like they like their women: Nice to look at, not talking back, and no real intellectual ability. Soft power is tolerated, though: "You foreigners are so lucky. You sing so well." I agree it's pathetic.
Hi Strawberry66,
In response to your question I would like to ask how does a foreigner’s shopping habits affect you? If a foreigner eats in a five star or fancy hotel and is wearing ‘cheap’ clothing attire then how will this affect your life directly?
I am not trying to cause offense as it is a genuine question but perhaps feeling good, living a good quality of life has more purpose on what shows on the outside, plus most of the showing off of materialistic goods is for the benefit of others and not for oneself, who do you live your life for, others or yourself?
coineineagh:
Vicky ic omplaining about the low value of her boyfriends as facegain/bragging tools due to their 'choice' of clothes. Rigid value judgements from a person with a static view of reality, in a stagnant society.
There is a Secret Ingredient in Western food that makes one's penis larger.
Stiggs:
People keep telling me that and I call bullshit on it. I've dipped 'it' in the soup bowl plenty of times and nothing got bigger, I just got some horrible burns.
bill8899:
You should let the soup cool off first. Duhhhh!
Oh and make sure it is very spicy soup! Very very spicy!
"You foreigners". For someone who seems to use this website a lot, she still doesn't get that there are over 200 nations in the world, each with their own ethnicities and cultures and lifestyles and even a lot of difference between individuals within those same nations. Can't blame the Chinese for this, though - they've had 5000 years of history (the longest in the world!) to perfect their navel gazing and racial arrogance.
Are you kidding me? Chinese waste so much money on dinners where they throw away half of the dishes to show that they can afford to waste food/money. Also yes I dress very casual, I wear brandless Ts and shorts in summer, hoodies and jeans in winter (Guangdong's winter) but at the end I still look better than any Chinese guy out here who spends half of his salary on fancy clothes simply because I am more fit, more handsome and more confident than they will ever be.
As for food I don't go out at fancy restaurants but I do buy imported groceries or bring back stuff from HK where my employer is based because these are the only ways to eat safe in Mainland China, I rather pay more to eat quality than eat shit, and I mean literally, look at how most food is grown or processed in China and think about it next time you eat your favorite super cheap stuff. One good example of super cheap and very popular food in China, latiao aka. spicy sticks, I see people, kids, teens everywhere eating it all the time, search how they are made, the hygiene standards in the factory, what are the contents of it and you will never eat it again if your have at least half of a brain.
dongbeiren:
I'm guessing that Chinese and foreigners at the same income level spend about the same on restaurants. The difference is the people from waiguo get more bang for their buck. When I go out, I don't waste food. If the food is good and I can't finish it, I will get it to go and eat it for lunch the next day. I don't care what anyone else thinks - anyone who thinks saving food loses face is an asshole. With Chinese, eating out is rarely about enjoying good food and good people. It's another chance to show off, gain face and make people uncomfortable who don't have the same drinking and smoking habits as you. Just another example of how Chinese is all about the show with no substance.
dongbeiren:
And the other day I had a couple of Chinese trying to convince me that Americans are fat because they eat too much latiao. I'm thinking, are you kidding me? The Food and Drug Administration would never let that shit on the shelves. Whoever said ignorance is bliss was wrong because most Chinese are incredibly ignorant and don't really seem to enjoy life much either.
laowaigentleman:
@dongbeiren
I'm currently in a difficult situation as a result of what you've just described about the face and eating culture here. One of my Chinese friends wants a foreign girlfriend. Now here's the problem, he can't speak English and he wants a girl who can speak Chinese and is beautiful.
His friend called my girlfriend today and asked how I'm getting on with finding him a partner. Here's where it gets even stickier: I had to try to explain to my girlfriend that it would be highly unlikely that any of the western girls I know would want a man like that. She was quite surprised because he has a lot of money and drives an audi. I'm not making that part up.
What's he like? He is a nice guy but he has a bad education, has inherited a lot of money and thinks this fixes everything, he ALWAYS talks about business and cars which he can buy, but he can't talk about how they work or what properties make them so appealing besides the envy he might provoke from other people in the street. He openly said he wants a mustang to feel like a real man. My female friends would fall over themselves if they heard that.
The other big differences are that he can't do anything on his own (always has to be in a big group) and he speaks really loudly in the house. I told my girlfriend politely that I didn't think it was possible to find a western girl who would be interested and she asked why. I can't tell her these reasons.
There's just no way in hell I can help him. He's bent of farming hybrids though. Just hearing that is off-putting enough. I can anticipate the reaction.
How can you tell a guy you can't help him because his manners are shit? That's essentially the crux of the problem. He doesn't drink too much and only smokes a little, but he still has those manners which are unique to this place.
All I've got right now is procrastination. Sorry about the big word. No idea why you hate them so much. Seems you hate big words more than I supposedly hate rich people (which of course I actually don't but I guess I have to make allowance for doubting [and piss poor comprehension skills too]).
Eorthisio:
laowaigentleman wow I know this type of person here in China, they are many and totally worthless as soon as you think outside the Chinese mindset (otherwise said don't judge people on their assets but on who they are). You can be sure that he wants a foreign girlfriend for no other reason than having a FOREIGN girlfriend, he doesn't want a girl who will love him but a FOREIGN girl to show off around like a trophy. Chinese gain a lot of face if they can get a foreign (white) partner, both males and females, sort of like "I am better than white guys/girls so he/she chose me", an extension of the complex of inferiority that they have toward Caucasians.
Robk:
@lwg - That is true. They have a huge complex that is pretty amusing. I tried to be very polite the first few years I was here but it REALLY doesn't pay off. Not in China.
I don't know if you can help him. Once Chinese hit a certain stage, and are the super stubborn types (which is quite a lot) then they are screwed. You could explain he is a dick with no manners (of course being true)... and he would say you have something against Chinese men and your opinion means nothing.
You won't be able to convince him. If you want to play him for a bigger fool, you can tell him all the foreign women are intimidated by such a success and classy guy. I bet you anything he believes it lol.
dongbeiren:
@ laowai
that guy sounds like an obnoxious tuhao bore but not uncommon here. It's sad when people think the whole world should kiss their ass over an Audi. Wait, that reminds me of someone... And I don't hate big words. I think you're taking some of my comments from the thread where you fight with Mike too seriously. I don't hate anything. Well, pretentious wanna be academics can be annoying but procrastination is not a big word imo. I've known it since the third grade.
Strawberry66:
Oh,Mr handsome.Are you getting the attention and marketing yourself?I have heard you told a lot of times that you are handsome.
ambivalentmace:
the audi always puzzles me with the chinese, in america back in the 80's the damn car would start up during the night and drive through the wall of your house and the publicity about it killed the sales and killed the prestige. i actually laugh when someone tries to impress with me ownership of an audi.
laowaigentleman:
He is obnoxious, but he's decent enough to me. I think of him as a product of his environment rather than someone else whose name isn't worth mentioning.
Whenever I get a phone call or some kind of message is relayed to me through someone else, I just make a lame excuse and bail. My last one was: I lost her email when the Chinese government blocked gmail.
Can't you ask someone in your family to go and see her and get it again? Excuse me I think I left my * insert choice of object back at the school.
Strawberry66:
The guy called dongbeiren and xunliang are abviously some idiots and social losers.Xunliang is a crazy Chinese guy just sent me some crazy message. I met a spanish guy likes that recently and called me bad name on line,and the ridiculous part is he keeps sending me message when he saw more picture of me I post on wechat after deleted him on skype. I am sure guys who called me bad name all the time on ecc must have issues in real life.Weirdo or ugly guy can't get a date.
laowaigentleman:
I've talked to them both on numerous occasions and they aren't like that at all, Strawberry.
dongbeiren:
Laowai, thanks for having my back. Vicky, it's pretty funny how a person who keeps getting banned from this site and makes new accounts is calling others social losers, especially when everyone on this site laughs at you. Please please don't give up. Keep trying Vicky! Oh, and I can get a date with my wife. Lots of other girls are interested too but I'm a loyal guy.
Eorthisio:
Typical Chinese defense system, "You don't lick my ass so you must be a loser", look at yourself first hahaha
Sure, and Chinese never order 2x or 3x what they will actually eat... Why I see long queue of Chinese to eat in fancy restaurants ? We go to restaurant, eating for 150/200 RMB about once a week, both my wife and me simply enjoy trying new food, and finer things than what we can cook by ourselves. We can both cook, but simple things. We buy mostly local food, few imported stuffs. We spend about 100 RMB/week in wine. Wine is part of my native culture, and now my wife enjoy a glass of wine,
I wear Decathlon, Uniloqo, or H&M, because it looks like I want : plain, discrete, comfortable. I don't feel like proving myself by dressing, I just want to feel comfortable yet stay discrete. I have zero interest in a car here, I see it as troubles while it fullfill none of my needs.
I prefer spending more in travels, books, and recently, and later, music (instruments, studio hardware). I save money to buy a nice home... not a flat, a home, with a garden, with things like proper insulation, plumbing, and so on, so that my future kids have a nice place that they will remember fondly when growing up. Life is short, live it comfortably if you have the chance to do so
Strawberry66:
Only 150/200rmb eatting out on weekend is not living fancy.
I prefer spend most of my earning on eating something I like not I have to show...do you know why I don't make sounds while eating? Because I don't look at others counting how many are looking at them?
Clothing...? By God I can't put on a pink T shirt with red shoes even at home while I see many dudes lurking around in that attire...probably too proud just because his red shoes has a sign of 'NIKE'...its another thing they couldn't see the 'NB' down there...
I wear tailored suits cause they are cheap in China...What does that make me?
Eorthisio:
I don't wear suits in China because I look like a Russian mafia killer with it, although Chinese girls seem to like it.
laowaigentleman:
@eo - haha. Now I've lost all interest in buying one
icnif77:
'Suits made in HK by Indian tailors' ------>that's quality-tity-ty
If I eat in KFC, you think it's fancy. I tell you, the fancy western food is worth it. Tastes much better, and much more healthy. If you don't want it, don't eat there. I guaranty you no one here cares what I eat. Only locals.
Let me ask you, when I wear my new Nikes and good clotheses, why do you gossip about me and put me down?
I don't buy quality here because the import tariffs make the price ridiculous. I will buy it at home. Besides, I do not know for sure if it's fake. Land of shanzai, sorry to say.
what does 'Hao gao le' mean?
" 
Strawberry/Vicki (yes we recognise your writing style) when are you going to stop insulting everyone here by calling everyone foreigner. How would you like to be referred to as "you asians" (or worse).It may come as a surprise but there are many nationalities and cultures out there, and Chinese only account for one in four/five of the world's population. Quantity is no guarantee of quality.
Eorthisio:
She is funny in her way, worship the West, wants to go there but still believes and claims some sort of Chinese superiority. If China and Chinese are so great 5000yearsofhistory so much better superior smarter and friendlier, why does she want to emigrate? Japanese and South-Koreans think that their respective countries are the best in the world, they love their homeland and their culture, and they very rarely emigrate, in China almost everyone would emigrate anywhere rather than staying here if they had the means to do so, even the billionaires who benefit 100% from the current system want to get out.
Strawberry66:
Why would I have to tell you why I want go out? I go out does not mean I can make more in America nor I really dislike China even sometimes I complain.Anyway Keep thinking in your small head and you arr just a no brainer.
tomcatflyer:
You just don't change do you Vicki. See a comment you don't like and you resort to insults. Dream on about your business in Europe. It won't happen with that attitude.
tomcatflyer:
Yes of course you did. It was only a few months ago you were on here asking advice about setting up an overseas business and now you expect us to believe you have set up an American business and closed it already. Like they say, I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night. I'll give that an F.
Strawberry66:
Believe or not.She made it.By the way,the pumps are under producing.Will shipped to California at the end of January 2015.Vicky registers her company in Mainland of China instead. Btw tomcatflyer vicky told that you sent her sexual messages on wechat.You old old married man.I will give you an F.
Welll,,,,,, most Chinese food sucks, I've never seen a decent piece of meat there, good beef steak?? and I spent most of my money on 
TedDBayer:
You can not understand the difference, Chinese believe things like Chinese people must eat Chinese food. Chinese beef is fresh, our beef is aged, it tastes better and is tender. A good steak is tender enough to cut with a fork.
TedDBayer:
Yes, I do feel sorry for the animals that we eat, I have always wanted a cow for a pet.
TedDBayer:
yes,there is a BIG difference between Eastern and China lobster
Strawberry66:
Both of them have big head and relatively small body.Hates that.I never saw abybody eatting the head.
Strawberry66:
Chinese don't eat lobster's head.Besides it is nothing wrong to eat the head.Your mind just got limited to your social idears.Many westerners do not try diffrent dishes simply just being told to not eat them by the ppl around their world.I don't eat lobster's head because I feel it look ugly.I eatone kind of vegetable leaf which no ppl eat it in my hometown,but I find it is tasty. I am Vegetarian sometimes just because I feel happy to eat food without cosing a life.But I am not vegetarian all the time,just like for a period time in a year.I made decision after I tried vegetable and meat.
TedDBayer:
There is nothing in the lobster head to eat. Chinese food is based from famine, Chinese eat things that others throw in garbage or things they shouldn't like dogs.
Strawberry66:
I liked eatting fish head a few years ago.It tastes good to me at that time.My family bought big fish head to cook with Toufu peppers.
Pizzahut and KFC became fancy restaurants haha
Strawberry66:
I always have burger king and MC Donald's because they are not expensive and thry have nice place to sit and have wifi for my phone. I ate in expensive resturant like Milos on weekend only. Blue frog offers good burger,wanna try there but a bit expensive thou.
Eorthisio:
They are authentic/traditional Western food according to Chinese people, never mind about the various European cuisines, every foreigners have been eating junk food on a daily basis for centuries.
Strawberry66:
Love Mexican food,I have got obsessed with eatting the Mexican burrito.Yum yum My hometown has food similar to it.I am gonna go back home to eat a lot of them^^
oups, I should give massive face lost to my wife, when I wear old hoodie, "only silver" necklace and using old scratched sony phone while wandering around and buying actual beef at 1pm, because I just woke up at saturday ...
I dont,I cook at home and wear shorts and rolling stones t.shirts and chuck taylor high tops everyday
Strawberry66:
Must be feeling good to have good quality food cooked at home and good clothes to wear.In this way you get both.I don't really believe guys say expensive resturants' food are safe to eat.I don't use tap water to cook but I assure those expensive resturants will use bad quality oil and tap water to cook.You can even buy organic food to cook if you cook at home. Speak of brand shopping,for sure I do not trust all brand quality are good but usually the design are nice.And more important is I do not like to be surround by lots of sales like bees when I shop,I prefer spending more money on a better design and not be followed by bees.Plus I myself have some experiences in choose better quality among brands^^
RobRocks:
I wouldnt say my clothes are good just comfortable.thats all,if you shop local you can buy meat and veg very cheap.
my chuckys have holes in them,but they feel nice to wear I wear them everyday,when you have a family you cant eat out all the time.
Strawberry66:
I understand about providing the family and can't eat out everyday.I guess I can provide a family 3 years latter but for now it would be tight if I go get married and have kids.God,might be screwed up.
Because what you call fancy is what I call acceptable. What you call a luxury is what I call a standard.
What I call acceptable is: quiet, spacious, pro staff, safe and edible food.
Hardly any Chinese restaurant can match even 2 of those criteria. Except of course a selection of Hong Kong brands.
Strawberry66:
Na...You call find lots in Shanghai.I guess you are living in smaller city.
RiriRiri:
Yeah obviously it's all about sheer size and status. How could it be... different. Beaaah, I said the curse word.
Okay, let me explain you a sad reality: in Shanghai, just like in every PRC city, you can't just walk in somewhere and expect a basic quality of everything. Because what I said above IS NOT the standard.
You have to either know a good place, or look for a good place.
Now, outside of China, for example Hong Kong (troll troll troll), the opposite happens. You CAN just walk in somewhere and expect some basic quality of everything (though you'll have to rule out the places where you find mainlanders, indeed). Strange heh.
the three basic luxuries of life, good food, good sex, and unrestricted travel.
if you are a "foreigner from a developed country' you have your basic needs, a safety net for old age, the rule of law fairly enforced in most cases, and access to education and upward mobility for your children, you now can partake of the 3 luxuries above and you dont really care what people think of you, but if you dont have the basics, then you fight like an impolite animal with your fellow humans in your country to be the one or group that gets the basic needs and dont understand anybody that is concerned with the luxuries of life at all.
sadly, china may never get to the possiblility of luxuries for everyone.
self critcism without retribution from authorities would be a good start.
Eorthisio:
Now that you say it I am glad to come from a country with accessible almost free education for everyone, free healthcare that beats anything you can get in China, rule of law, safety net for the unemployed and the elderly, and so on. China will probably never have such wonders, as they remind us, too many people.
I have a little different reason. I like Chinese food just fine, but there are very few restaurants that are non-smoking. I don't want to spend my hard earned cash in the din of a smoke-filled, cancer-causing Chinese establishment. I get enough just breathing the air. This leads to my dining out at relative expensive "western" restaurants.
As for clothes, I've only spent ~800rmb in 4 years on clothes here. I think a lot of the styles are hideous, and they definitely aren't made for someone who isn't a stick. No chance I'd be caught in bright yellow skinny pants. When I went home last year, I made up for my lack of spending here, and at cheaper prices. I spent a small fortune on clothes and bought 3 pairs of shoes that should last until my exit.
Spending 50 RMB on a meal is not fancy.
Strawberry66:
I call it fancy because when it compares to their 100rmb shoes.Well.it doesn't matter now,I now just think people have their own way to spend money on diffrent things.
