I saw this city at night for the first time on Tuesday, during my first week here in Shenzhen. My first exploration!
Unfortunately, we need to be on the bus to go to work by 8 am and do not return home until 7pm. Needless to say, it is an extremely long work day and at the end of it, an extremely exhausting work week.
By the time we get into Luohu, which is the end of the Luobo line, it is 7:30 pm. The shopping building and the myriad of shops crammed into its 5 stories is immense, but come 9 pm, the doors start to roll down and everyone is heading home for the night. We have little time to do what we came here to do: which was to make an introduction to the fabric dealer and tailor we have come to meet.
This trip was primarily just to show me the ropes of getting on the metro and finding my way to the shopping area of Shenzhen. Truly, now that I've been here more than a week, I know that there is shopping to be had all over Shenzhen, however, the best deals and selection is in Luohu, an easy 20 minute train ride away.
My colleague hustles me quickly to the 5th floor where most of the fabric dealers are. At first, I think we are headed into the largest fabric store I have ever seen, but as we twist and wind our way through bolts and bolts of fabric, I am dazzled and want to stop and touch everything. But at last we come to a nook where we stop and there are about 5 ladies waiting for us. My colleague handed me off to our Chinese companion who would act as our translator and negotiator during our transactions in Luohu. I would come to appreciate her more and more over the days to come, but in that instant, I am welcomed by these ladies as if they had known me for years. After a few short discussions and a lot of fabric-fondling, they quickly discern my tastes and show me bolt after bolt of beautiful fabric that would come to be my new suits and winter coats.
It is like speed shopping on steroids but I already had a budget in mind and knew what I was interested in having made. It helped a great deal to have someone who knew the language and could accurately translate my needs. Invaluable really. So much for simple introductions. We get straight to business. It takes me about 20-30 minutes to select fabrics and only on our way back through do I take notice of the numbered stalls. This isn't just one huge floor of a fabric store, it is hundreds of fabric "stores", each one numbered for a paying vendor who rents space here like stalls in a flea market. I start to understand as the other vendors milling around stare at me sadly wishing I was visiting them, but not daring to speak to me now that I had a vendor. It is code and a respected custom. They do not actively try to steal each other's customers and this, I appreciate.
My fabric lady is jovial and has me figured out pretty quickly, showing me fabrics I could only say yes to. As we select fabrics for this or that, she cuts a corner off the fabric and slides the fabric samples onto safety pins. Not sure how her system works but she remembers exactly what I have selected and what I have selected it for. I am extremely impressed and have an innate, gut confidence in this woman's expertise. I almost giggle.
So after a whirlwind fabric affair, we wind our way back through the fabric maze to another stall hidden way back in the corner, referred to only as #19. This stall is equipped with racks of clothes waiting for pick up by their owners. There are tables and comfortable club chairs, a semi-private dressing room for fittings and a large English desk where we conduct the tailoring business. You select fabrics first and then get down to the business of the actual tailoring afterwards.
One of the women lays down a heavy stack of fashion magazines and exclusive well-known name brand fashion designer catalogs. I sift through page after page and begin to associate the various fabric swatches I've selected with the pieces I want to have made. I select, the tailor reviews and makes a few sketches, jots down page numbers, etc and lastly tapes a fabric swatch to the order form for each piece. I see items I want but don't like this or that and my companion quickly interprets my wishes while the tailor makes sketches and shows me. I am in awe. She is sketching it exactly as I am describing it and I feel oddly connected to these women. The tailor makes suggestions, tells me whether the fabric I've selected is a good choice for the piece and is extremely helpful. After about 45 minutes, we have completed the order and she takes my measurements for each and every piece, noting the precise measurements on each order form.
My colleague who had brought me here for introductions is extremely impressed as he's never witnessed a female in action and keeps telling me that in fact, he's never met a woman so decisive as I am. He is dumbfounded by how easily and how quickly we are working through our selections. He is patient and I can tell that he wouldn't have left me alone there even if I had insisted, he was so fascinated by this process, admiring my selections in an appreciative male sort-of way. Women understand women, no matter what the culture or language barrier and after this, we all feel as if we've known each other for many moons.
Finally, we get down to the nitty gritty and the haggling over final pricing begins. This goes back and forth a while between my newly hired negotiator and translator before she pitches the final price to me. It is staggering. But not in the way you expect. I have to restrain myself from getting up and going back for more fabric… But I resist. I get all of my order processed for what it would have cost me to have bought one designer dress off the rack back home in a department store and I'm trying not to pee my pants with excitement. I should haggle down a bit, I know, but I don't. I give the impression that I am thinking this over carefully and then slowly nod my acceptance. I don't have enough cash to cover the total order but my friend offers to help me put down a deposit and I agree to pay him back the next morning. Done deal.
They quickly close up shop and as I leave, they come over and hug me and give me kisses calling me "Pretty lady." Of course, I think that any paying customer is likely to receive this complement but for some reason, I think they are sincere and I quickly come to understand that this is what these ladies need in order to survive here. Pretty ladies with spending money are their lifeline and helps to keep them from the streets, which I have come to learn is the more common fate for women with few skills or opportunity. But these women have skills aplenty and I am quite in awe of their spirit.
I leave feeling satisfied with my purchase but most of all, inspired to be the kind of women these women can also admire and look up to. I want to give back somehow and until I figure out how to do something more meaningful, I will spend my money carefully and considerately, in an effort to support the work these women do and aspire to do. Above all, I will pay it forward and send them new customers when I have a chance to befriend a new colleague or recruit on our team. This, is how it's done, in my beautiful, beautiful China.
I...love...you!
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