Shenzhen

Shenzhen was one more place I was keen to see before we leave. To understand why you must try and appreciate what Shenzhen is to Hong Kong: Shenzhen is fake paradise, the land of cheap copies, cut price tailoring and Made in China all within an hour of Hong Kong Island. Whatever it costs in Hong Kong it will be a tenth of the price in Shenzhen.

Shoppers head over the border from Hong Kong in their thousands, armed with empty suitcases, wheelie shoppers and huge bags. The first time you go, it is hard to imagine what there is to get excited about. Seen from a distance Shenzhen is nothing but an ugly urban sprawl of concrete skyscrapers. And yet everyone talks about it: Have you been yet? When are you going to go? Whilst fundamentally sceptical that it would hold any appeal for me I was keen to see for myself, if only to gain the moral high ground and dismiss it all as worthless rubbish.

We headed for the border by car: two Shenzhen virgins, one relative novice and a veteran. We parked and took the MTR just one stop before buying our visas, having our swine flu health checks, passing passport control and walking across the border into….. a five storey shopping complex.

I had expected it to be filthy, dangerous and over-crowded. I expected there to be vendors pawing and clawing at me to get my attention and more importantly my business but I hadn’t expected it to be so much fun.

We headed first for a tailor and showed her a few things we’d considered having copied. I was non-committal taking the view if I left empty handed it wouldn’t really matter. If I found something fabulous then I might be swayed. The tailor took us to the fabric market, an Aladdin’s Cave of material. And bit by bit my high-minded resistance was worn down. Beautiful fabrics at RMB 25 a metre - £2.50! Add £20 for the cost of a tailor made dress and it’s a no brainer. Take your pick, why stop at one?

And of course the same thing could be said for bags, shoes, watches, jewellery. It’s hard to imagine the quantities and, dare I say it, the quality of the goods on view. Vendors call out, Missy, Missy! in anticipation of your interest in their shop. They usher you in and sit you down on a plastic stool, hand you a catalogue of designer bags to flick through. That one, you say, or Have you got Prada? And a man will disappear round the corner or rummage in a large hold-all and suddenly produce a large proportion of the latest collection of whichever designer you called for. In one shop when I explained what I was after, the man removed a panel in the ceiling and shinned up to retrieve a plastic bag full of the items I had described.

It becomes addictive. The atmosphere and the bartering go to your head and you start to justify absurd purchases on the grounds of their absurd prices. It’s a good policy to arrive with a list, to know your budget and to stick to both.

I expected to be tired, I expected to be bored. In stead I left feeling I’d had a great time, enjoyed every minute and picked up a couple of really good bargains. Of course the real test will be when I unpack the parcel that arrives next week from the tailor. It’ll be interesting to see what my copied dresses look like and if it's really true that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys….