Chinese Odyssey - Your  Guide

Living in China

Shopping

Haggling

Unless your in a modern multi level store don't take the first price that your offered. Haggling is still accepted and often expected. You can get a much better price on most goods if you haggle, in markets and the smaller stores you can haggle on anything, but not in the larger chain stores. haggling can get you a 

Foreigner Rises

scarce Commodities

• Good Coffee, Chinese coffee is very expensive and does not taste very nice. You won't find it in most high street restaurants but  dried coffee is easy to find in most supermarkets. There is a rumor that coffee been have been spotted in Jiujiang.
• Cheese, Cheese is very rare in China. I have only seen it in one supermarket in Jiujiang. Sliced cheese (Big Mac cheese) and soft cheese are very rare and very expensive. Fresh cheese is nearly impossible to buy.
• Deodorant and antiperspirant, ladies deodorant is impossible to buy in all but the largest cities (Aka Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities). Men's deodorant can be brought in a few official sports clothes stores (e.g. Nike and  Addidas brand shops) in smaller cities but it is very expensive.
• Sliced meat, Chinese don't eat sandwiches so pre prepared sliced meat is very rare. I have only seen it in a single supermarket in Jiujiang.
• Breakfast Cereals, Chinese cereals are usually a type of soup made from rice and dried vegetables and are made with hot water, porridge can be found in many supermarkets but it is usually corn porridge and tastes very mild compared to European porridge which is made from oats. Hunt around, it is often sold in large plastic storage jars or soft plastic bags (similar to a European refill bag). Chinese porridge goes very well with honey. 
  I have found four brands of almost familiar cereal in Jiujiang, three of them are children's breakfast cereals. The fourth however is excellent. European cereals are very expensive when compared to the other food they you are likely to try.
• Fresh milk, Most Chinese milk is Soya milk or has been intensively heated to give it a longer sales life. Fresh milk from a local dairy may not have been heat treated so avoid it unless your used to milk that has not been pasteurized. Milk can be brought in most cities and towns but is more expensive.
• Black tea, while most countries do not appreciate the black tea consumed in England, it is a genuine derivative of tea. It is nearly impossible to buy English black tea anywhere in the world, and to my knowledge completely impossible to buy it in China without a private supply.
• Candy, American candy is very hard to find outside of a large city, I have seen Oreos and Dove Chocolate bars in high street super markets in small cities but little else. Chocolate is expensive but not impossible to get your hands on. A Few large brands sell chocolate bars in   China, but they are quite pricey.
• Sausages, any type of prepared meat is impossible to buy outside of a large city. Especially European Sausages and hamburgers. It is possible to buy processes, ready to eat sausage meat for sandwiches or cooking even in smaller cities but these are a snack food.
• Land intensive vegetables, cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce are expensive to buy unless your in a very big city.
• Bread, Chinese steamed bread is cheap and tasty for a snack, but sliced European bread is very hard to buy. Most good bakeries sell white bread but it is very soft and is often sweet. 
  It does not make good sandwiches and is best eaten for breakfast or as part of a snack. It does make good toast.
• Butter, Outside a large supermarket butter is impossible to buy. It is also very expensive.
  Margarine is also almost impossible to get. Sandwiches are not common in China, and neither is the European style of baking so butter is not required. Chinese bread does not need butter as it is very light.
• Tinned Meat, any prepared meat is expensive in China. There are a few brands that can be brought in small supermarkets and well stocked shops but there are expensive and there is not much variety. Luncheon meat is available but it is mostly water and has no flavor.
• Canned anything, anything that you normally buy in a can, soup, meat in a source, vegetables are rare and expensive. 
  Even in a large supermarket I find it very difficult to buy any ready to cook food in tins. 
  Canned soup is expensive and is usually Chinese soup used as an ingredient of a meal, meat and gravy is impossible to buy outside of a large city. Tined vegetables are usually only sold if pickled or processed.
• Fresh fruit juice, fruit juice is quite rare in China, unless you buy processed juice (fruit squash) you won't find much variety.
• Jam, fruit jam is not rare but can be very expensive. Chinese cooking does not use jam and they don't usually eat jam on toast.
• Tinned Fruit, The Chinese eat much more fresh fruit than Europeans do so they don't want tinned fruit. It is not rare because it is eaten with Chinese porridge, but it is more expensive that fresh fruit.