No matter where you go, everyone is talking about the recent downturn the global economy has taken. Indeed, it would seem that wherever you are, prices are steadily increasing. However, there is still a place where you can get your ‘value for money’ without buying something in a rather ugly pre-packaged “smart price” or “value” format, that place is China!
On my regular market shop a couple of days ago, I managed to buy all the following for just £2.08
That includes Chinese Spinach, Garland chrysanthemum, Broad Beans, a dozen eggs, Spinach, Ginger Root, Garlic, Courgette, Chinese Onion, Tofu and Vermicelli. In fact, without the vermicelli, all of that would have cost just £1.28. So yes… the prices have gone up, even in China. However, there is nothing for me to worry about for a while yet!
Whilst in the UK we often consider ourselves as a ‘developed nation’, there are in fact many areas in which we have fallen behind, often actually being caught up or overtaken by so-called ‘developing nations’. One of these areas is recycling.
In the UK, as far as I know (and unless things have changed since I left about 8 months ago) recycling is on a completely voluntary basis. Furthermore, recycling is actually quite a hassle. Our house (back in Kendal) is full of tubs of empty cans, empty bottles, cardboard and plastics ready to be taken to the local council waste disposal site for recycling - a trip that we have to make ourselves in the car every week. OK, admittedly, the council introduced a new recycling scheme where all households now get a couple of small crates for cans and bottles which are emptied every week. However, this is completely unrealistic for a number of reasons:
- Most households get through quite a few glass bottles, jars and tin cans in a week. A small crate is hardly going to be big enough.
- Plastics and organic waste form the largest part of household waste and yet neither of these are catered for in the scheme.
- There is no incentive for you to go to the trouble of scrubbing out your glass jars and tin cans and putting them in the crate. You are not penalised in the slightest if you are lazy and just chuck them in the general waste bin.
China on the other hand - lets remind ourselves, a developing nation - has got things completely sorted. Recycling here is on a freelance basis. All over the place there are people riding three-wheeled bikes with trailers who collect rubbish for recycling. Likewise there are a number of fixed recycling stations (you are never more than a 5 minute walk away from one) where you can take your recyclable waste. Instead of wasting some petrol driving halfway accross town every fortnight on a voluntary basis, here you are remunerated for the waste you hand in - you actually sell it to the recyclers!
Recycling is no big money maker but to put things in perspective a couple of months worth of waste hoarded up in a cupboard in my kitchen made me 11 yuan when I took it along to the recycling lady last week. If we put that into context, its enough to buy you a Cheeseburger and Chips in any of Beijing’s McDonalds chains (not that I like McDonalds but its pretty good price reference). In the UK a Cheeseburger and Chips would set you back about £2.00-£2.20 so I guess you would make about that much money in the UK. Furthermore, in Beijing I actually don’t really use anything tinned (Chinese people aren’t really into tinned food) and I hardly stock any jars either. For a family of 5 in the UK who get though considerably more tins, jars and bottles than I do here in Beijing you could be making pounds a week by recycling rather than throwing away your household waste.
I know things aren’t perfect here in China and there is a lot to be done. However, I think that the UK government could learn a thing or two from China and other countries who run similar schemes (Canada, Germany etc). Its all well telling everybody to save the planet but few people will actually go and do anything about it unless there is some incentive there for them to take action.
It is commonly said that you can buy anything in Beijing, you just have to look hard enough and be willing to fork out the cash. Whilst this applies for crack cocaine and firearms, what I was referring to in particular is imported food products.
Normal Chinese supermarkets are a bit of a letdown in this domain - occasionally Carrefour has a dedicated aisle or two which sells ‘Frosties’ breakfast cereal or ‘Nutella’ chocolate spread, all of which are pricey, but in general its pretty hard to get your hands on what you’re after. Bit of a no-go.
Another option is Wudaokou or Chaoyang - two areas of Beijing where foreigners are particularly numerous. Here you may find small specialist dealers that will sell you Mcvities digestive biscuits, HP sauce and all those other necessities that us foreigners need (or think we need). All these things come at extortionate prices but the shops rely on the fact that these things can’t be bought elsewhere and so I’m sure they still make a fair amount of money out of us.
The king of foreign produce in Beijing has to be a German Cash and Carry chain called ‘Metro’ which is absolutely gigantic. Luckily Siqi uses her mum’s membership card that lets us get in. Here you can get all of the essentials required to whip up an Italian pasta dish (pasta, ‘Sacla’ sauces, and mozzarella cheese) and you can also stock up on your biscuits, chocolates, wine and spirits. However, like everywhere else, all this might risk putting a hole in your pocket if you fail to restrain yourself!
The final option for buying in international produce is to log onto the Chinese equivalent of eBay, Taobao. Unlike eBay which doesn’t allow the selling of food products online, Taobao probably has more international produce available than all the other places I’ve mentioned above put together. So far I’ve used it to buy a massive tub of Thai Red Curry paste, Thai Fish sauce, Kaffir Lime Leaves and some other bits and pieces necessary for putting together a Thai Red Curry. The amazing thing is that all this arrived the day after I ordered it and not too pricey either. I think that of all the options available in Beijing, this is probably the best choice and also the most convenient.
To sum things up, most things can be bought over here but it all depends on how much you are willing to pay. A simple pasta dish that might be eaten two or three times a week in the UK cost me 5 or 6 times as much as making any regular chinese dish over here - hence a luxury I can’t enjoy too often.
Chinese people have a popular proverb: 入乡随俗 that applies well for eating in China. If you want to save money - then eat like the locals, don’t try and take Europe to China, otherwise your student loan is going to dry up faster than you can say ‘Topup fees’. When in Rome…
A great quote from Prince William when interviewed about starting at university:
“The last thing I want to do is cause loads of hype or problems, I just want to go in there and get my asparagus or whatever.”
I remember when reading this quote I cracked up into hysterics. I’m not sure about other UK university students but I’m sure that I never ate Asparagus during my time at Leeds last year. Don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff; but with the recent inflation of University fees, it was more than slightly out of my budget.
Well… all that has now changed. You see in China, Asparagus is actually fairly accessible - you can get a nice fat clump of it from the supermarket for about 20p, something that would set you back a couple of pounds in the UK I’m sure. Making the most of this opportunity (Asparagus is seasonable, it’s not going to hang around for long I suspect) I’ve been eating steamed asparagus shoots twice or three times a week now - food fit for a king!
Well… certainly fit for a prince anyway.
Jono
