Comments on: “Hey Laowai, hey shoe shine, shoe shine 10 yuan very good hey!”

By: guiyang_laoshi

guiyang_laoshi — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:11:30 +0000

I’ve had the drip treatment in Shanghai. I live in Guizhou where the price is 1-2 RMB (never been asked for more) and the show shine folks who are almost always women have a folding chair set up and they quietly wait for customers. Some may suggest a shoe shine, in Chinese - this is Guizhou after all, as you pass but they don’t chase you.

Only in Shanghai have I seen the roving shoe shiners who even after being repeatedly told “no” continue to follow and request. Down near the Bund last summer the gentleman did actually run in front of me, stoop down and squirt polish. I felt bad but I had repeatedly said “no” so I walked on and wiped off my shoe later.

Does this make me a jerk?

By: Adz

Adz — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:33:41 +0000

I had a shoe shine guy run up and put polish on the shoe of a big client of mine. This was a global CEO of a big multi-national who had not been to China before.

I was shocked and was about to lay into the shoeshine guy when the CEO casually grabbed the shoeshine guy by the jacket and used the shoeshine guy’s own sleve to wipe off the polish.

He did it so smoothly and casually, I was so impressed. I did leave the shoeshine guy with the parting coment that I’d be back to look for hima nd kick the crap out of him if I could.

By: erb

erb — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:11:30 +0000

I am going to venture out and say that most Chinese people conduct business in a typically ‘more agressive’ manner, not just street peddlers. I wandered into a nice looking tea shop the other day, just wanting to check it out and see if I could buy some cheap jasmine tea (of course not) and was followed around by a lady who felt obliged to ask me if i wanted this or that or this or that…. it got on my nerves so i left. But I have been to countless stores (not street vendor stalls) where I am either just followed around or things are suggested to me, which makes me think it might just be cultural thing.

By: Jakob Montrasio

Jakob Montrasio — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:36:54 +0000

I work near the old fake market that has been closed on Huahai road, and every time after getting out the line 1 subway I have to fight off at least four WATCHBAGDVD guys…

By: John B

John B — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:53:46 +0000

I hadn’t seen the “shoe polish drip” tactic until yesterday — is it a recent addition to their arsenal? It seems like the sort of thing that is going to end up with someone kicking a shoeshiner, and then getting jumped by a gang of them. The upside, at least, would be that a high profile incident would probably get the police to do something about it for at least a few weeks…

By: Matthew Stinson

Matthew Stinson — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:25:42 +0000

That’s nearly the same selling strategy as the sellers working in Beijing’s Silk Street, and they don’t have beggary as an excuse.

By: Gemme

Gemme — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:50:45 +0000

Actually, I wish there were more shoes shine guys/women here in Shanghai and then hopefully with a bit more tact then the ones you describe and I run into as well in that area.

When I lived in Kunming there were many, the price was 1 Rmb and they mostly catered to the Chinese as it was a very normal thing to have your shoes polished.

Here in Shanghai it seems to have become a tourist trap/attraction.

Best price I got by the way here is 5 Rmb on Nanjing Lu.

By: DB

DB — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:09:12 +0000

At the (apparently deceased?) market outside the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, I wondered if any of the traders noticed that the only stall I actually stopped to look at was the one one where no-one actually shouted at me, grabbed me or otherwise tried to propel me in their direction. If they had, the might have concluded that (at least with British tourists) that a more softly, softly approach was more appropriate.

Having said that, it was only a matter of timing as shortly after we commenced haggling that a man appeared who no doubt should have been the ‘propeller’ had he been there. Perhaps he should be paid a small commission for staying at home.

I sympathise with the shoeshine price hike problem. I’ve found that the only solution is to fish in my pocket and pull out the starting price and say that apart from that I have no money. Whenever they ask about wax, special polishes I remind them that they can do what they like but I still only have the starting price.

Someone’s still tried to get 20 kuai out of me after being told repeatedly that I have only two but the two kuai in the hand reduces the arguing.

By: China-Matt

China-Matt — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:51:48 +0000

I find it amusing when they try to shine my shoes when I walk by wearing sandals.

By: Philip

Philip — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:33:40 +0000

In Guangzhou I once fixed a price for a shine for 3 Kwai - which was a bit high but it was hot and I couldn’t be bothered to argue. It’s 2 Kwai in Lanzhou. When I got up to go she tried to get 10 Kwai out of me. At that precise moment a middle aged Chinese lady passed us, heard the demand and told the girl not try to rip me off!.

I wouldn’t have paid but it was just great to have that happen.