Buying Souvenirs

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Introduction

Planning a trip home? Meeting an important guest? You're going to be wanting to take a trip to buy some souvenirs before you do. In this lesson we teach you some different kinds of traditional gifts that you can buy and the vocabulary you need to purchase them. Now it's time for gift-buying.

Cultural Expansion

Buying gifts in China can be a delight. Often times the prices that you find are remarkably cheap and the goods are exotic. However, there are times when one ought to be careful, especially when shopping for higher priced items, as fakes abound on the Chinese market. So in today’s Cultural Expansion we’ll talk about some ways to avoid making mistakes and being deceived, first generally, and then specifically for the item purchased in this lesson: amber.

The very first and most important thing to remember when shopping in China is: buyer be ware. There are no real regulations and no guarantees that products you go to buy are what they report to be. In the end, if you buy something, you’re stuck with it, and so you need to be sure that something is real before you give the money.

So, how can you do that? If you’re planning on buying something expensive and nice as a gift, go to an accredited store. Yes, there are cheap versions of what you’re buying available in many smaller stores, but the old adage, “you get what you pay for,” is just as true in China as it is in the West. You’re buying something nice, make sure you’re not cheated.

If you want to go to stores that don’t have some kind of solid reputation for what you’re buying, make sure you go armed with knowledge. Do your research online or bring a friend who knows what they’re doing. These steps take only a little time and save you the disappointment of buying something you really like, only to find out later that it’s fake.

Now, with regard specifically to amber, there are a few ways to distinguish whether or not it is real. Usually fake amber is made of plastic, as such it’s easy to tell the difference between the two. If you shave off just a small amount of dust from the amber and apply intense heat to it, amber will, because of its mineral composition, turn a glowing red. Plastic will simply melt. Another method involving heat is to heat a needle and poke it into the amber. Both amber and plastic will melt, but only amber will have a sweet smell, while we all know the smell of burnt plastic.

Of course, many people selling amber might not be that willing to let their goods undergo these means of testing. Another way of testing the true quality of amber is to put the amber into a solution of saturated salt water. If it is amber it should float. Plastic will sink.

Now that you’re armed with some knowledge, hopefully you’ll be better able to navigate the market next time you’re out looking for gifts in China. Amber is a beautiful gift that has been appreciated both in the West and the East for its particular qualities. With the information in this article you should now be able to better appraise the amber that you see when you’re out looking on the streets here.

Related Links
A whole lot about amber
More details on distinguishing between real and fake amber
What is amber?