Our Visit to Walmart China

Wrapping up the Trip With a Visit to Walmart

As Hannah's five-week stay in China approached its end, we began to reflect on the many experiences we had while travelling throughout this vast country, and we began to scramble for gifts for family and friends, which we had deliberately put off in order keep our backpacks as light as possible on the road.

When we were first planning our trip, a vestige of the romance of world travel led us to temporarily imagine that we would frequent plenty of arts and crafts spots where we would be able to purchase Chinese items for friends and relatives that could not be obtained in the U.S. A few of these places do exist. There is, for example, an embroidery showroom in Changsha with very fine silk tapestries and clothing. (We currently have plans for our next attempt at negotiation there, they do not give foreigners more than a 10% discount- currently, this is a less frequent practice, but this is a Government shop.) There are also several galleries in the major cities that display one-of-a-kind calligraphy. So, the "high-end," high-quality, and relatively high-price places are certainly there

At the same time, we were not surprised to find that most tourist destinations had your garden-variety memorabilia—cheap plastic items, postcards, Mao watches (designed to break the day after you buy them), and of course, Chinese fans. We avoided these vendors for as long as possible, and finally did a shopping spree at the site of Mao's birthplace in Shaoshan, about two hours from Changsha.

Two days before Hannah's departure, there were still a couple of outstanding items. We wanted to get an array of Chinese candies for the nephews and niece, and we wanted to get some baijiao, Chinese liquor made from rice, for Hannah's parents and grandpa. "Where's the best place to shop for baijiao?" we asked Joe's chain-smoking, tea-drinking tui na (massage) teacher at the hospital. "Wal-Mart," one of the patients' parents who had overheard our question chimed in.

So, to Wal-Mart we went. (Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, we had already been to Wal-Mart earlier that week.) Wal-Mart first came to China in 1996. Today, there are 60 stores in 30 Chinese cities. One of the eight showcase Supercenters just happens to be in Changsha. I guess you could say we were just lucky to be there in 2006, the tenth anniversary of the first "Communist" Wal-Mart, for which there are banners in the store's entrance alongside a mounted photo of legendary founder and CEO, Sam Walton, receiving a reward for entrepreneurship from President Bush.

The Changsha Wal-Mart, as Joe has already written, is a model of market research. The store, as big as any Supercenter in the U.S., is mainly a gigantic food market. It has a host of Western foods as well as most items known to the Chinese palette. There is even a seafood section with live frogs. We had no trouble gathering our smattering of Chinese candies for the kids, many of which came in sweet pea and red bean paste varieties. (Needless to say, the kids ended spitting out most of what they tasted.)

The liquor was a bit more complicated. As with most spirits, there's a spectrum of quality and price. Before deciding what to buy, we wanted to taste some. So, we bought a small sample and took it outside, where there are plastic picnic tables sponsored by Coca-Cola. It was a funny sight indeed—us sitting at a table on a large sidewalk in Changsha in front of Wal-Mart drinking Chinese liquor. A fittingly surreal and "global" image that we will remember as one of our last moments in Changsha (and in China) together. At least for now…