To get the most out of your shopping experience in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, you should pick up some bargaining skills or else you will end up paying too much most of the time.

If what you want to buy, is sold in many nearby shops and stalls, chances are you will be able to bargain for a lower price than what’s quoted.  It is a standard practice to negotiate for a better price.  Usually the real price is 1/3 – 1/2 of the quoted.  The vendors set prices with the expectation that they will be reduced in the bargaining process.  Thus, if you don’t bargain, you are paying too much!

Feisty, rebellious Guǎngdōng is China’s fastest-developing province and also one of the richest. For centuries it was isolated from the rest of China by its mountainous topography, forcing the Cantonese to rely on their own pragmatism and innovation for survival.

Situated in the fertile Pearl River Delta on the South China Sea, the Cantonese have always looked outward to the sea for their livelihood. It was along Guǎngdōng’s 800km coastline that foreign merchants first made contact with China and the ancient Maritime Silk Road had its beginnings.