Shopping in Beijing
Posted: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 10:26 AM
It was a blue-sky day today, bright and clear and beautiful, a perfect day for shopping.
This city is a shopper’s paradise, although getting what you want does require a lot of travelling. Different products are sold in different sections of the city, and they’re not close together. On my list were new eyeglasses and some custom-tailored clothes.
I’ve needed new glasses for a while, but I’ve always objected to having to spend a minimum of $200 for the three strips of metal that hold the things on my face. A frame is pretty simple and can’t cost that much to make, but you wouldn’t know it from the opticians I’ve been to in the States. I’m always buying frames I don’t really like because I refuse to pay $400 for the ones I do like.
That’s probably dumb, considering the money I’ve invested in hats over the years. But, hey, we’ve all got our priorities.
Anyway, I figured that I could probably save a bit on glasses over here. Sure enough, there’s a district in the city that is home to probably 300 optical shops. One building alone houses 200 shops ranging in size from 150 square feet or so on up to maybe 800 square feet. It’s called “Beijing Glasses City.” It’s a little overwhelming, but I wandered around while the shop owners begged for my business until I found the style of frames I wanted.
They do not do complete eye exams, so you still have to get the glaucoma test back home or elsewhere. The shop I settled on did a perfect job of updating my prescription, and a clerk knew enough English to navigate through the process. I picked out frames for my regular glasses, settled on a scratch-resistant lens, then ordered a pair of prescription sunglasses, too. They told me to come back in an hour.
There was a multistory antique furniture market down the street with the same arrangement as Glasses City – lots of tiny little shops. So I had no difficulty killing an hour and even getting a bit of an education.
The glasses were done when I returned. The prescription is perfect and the frames are what I wanted, not what I could afford.
The total bill was just over $140. Take that, Lenscrafters!
Then it was off to Sunny, who through word of mouth in the office has become the unofficial tailor to NBC News. (He’s also done work for Condoleezza Rice.) Beijing’s tailors, like the opticians, occupy a multistory building occupied by scores of of professionals, all competing for your business. Sunny didn’t even have a cubicle – just an open space crammed with fabric samples against the back wall.
It took about 20 minutes to pick out fabrics, decide on styles and get measured. By this time next week, I should have a dozen custom-tailored, 100 percent cotton dress shirts, three suits – one linen, one silk and one wool – four pairs of casual slacks and a calf-length Chesterfield overcoat in a black wool-cashmere blend and lined in red silk.
The bill? Would you believe $900?
I don’t either.
