For years, I've been wanting to take the PTT blog readers on a trip to that little known region over the Chinese border, Zhuhai. I'd heard whispers about it being the Shangri-La of furniture as this factory or that factory makes the furniture for this or that incredible top western designer regularly featured in Vogue Living. I had to see it for myself! I had visions of the PTT Brisbane Headquarters looking like the pages of a glossy magazine! This trip could change my life!
The Zhuhai trip has never been the easiest endeavour though as:
1. You need a car and driver to do the area justice and you need to fill that car with five friends to make the trip affordable
2. You can find very little information about where to go on the Internet so you are at the mercy of your driver and what you can cobble together from your stylish Tai Tai friends who would never actually admit to purchasing their amazing pieces in Zhuhai anyway....
3. English is not as widely spoken as our other favourite Chinese shopping destination, Shenzhen
C's impending move back to Australia was the perfect excuse to finally see what Zhuhai was all about....
We were picked up by our trusty driver, F, at 7:30 am. People, if you want a good driver in China, F is your man! He's ours though so you need to join the PTT blog to get his details. Here is trusty driver F neatly negotiating his way through the perils of China highways...
Our party of 5 included C, S, our new to the PTT blog friends M and J and yours truly, PTT.
It was 3.5 hour drive to get to our first destination, so you can't say we aren't dedicated shoppers...
Thankfully, C had organised us all to bring lunch to share on the way there and wine to toast our hopeful shopping victory on the way back.
That girl C can make a mean chicken sandwich...
Our first stop was a factory that M had been whispered about. Yes people, this is a visual of a typical outside of a factory where all your 'made in china' goodies are manufactured. Pretty, it ain't....
Did you hear the one about when the two western girls entered the factory? No seriously, the factory workers and locals were extremely polite and pretty much just carried on with their work as we thundered around poking things. This was an "antiques" factory - but they can also make to order! Yes, I WILL have two of those 100 year old hand painted cabinets please!
Here I am working my way up an aisle. I wasn't in the market for anything... C leaving was just a good excuse for me to have a snoop around for future furniture purchases...
If I was in the market for something, I would have liked to have purchased this Mongolian style side table...
Even though J and I just met the morning of the Zhuhai excursion, we seem to have very similar tastes in home decorating. Here's a chinese-esque table painted in a drool worthy Scandinavian grey-blue-green colour scheme that we both coveted. I know it is not a traditional Chinese colour to use but why can't they do more like this????
By the time we emerged from the gloomy factory interior, the locals had gathered to stare at us. Never rude, mind you, just with wide-eyed fascination...
Factory number 2. Another of M's contacts. This one allegedly manufactured tables similar to a brand that we all covet in Hong Kong but at a much cheaper wholesale price...
Here's F our trusty driver having a chat with one of the furniture stainers just out of view to the left...
It was obviously red paint day in the factory...
I liked this stool, Obviously no one else did as it seemed to have been there a while...
Very interesting Canadian destination boxes...
Poor old J. I think the wet dog stench combined with the lunch time aroma combined with the varnish smell of the factory was getting a bit too much for her by this stage...
The trip up the stairs was worth it... the furniture was exactly what we were looking for!
They even had a bit of a "showroom" type arrangement. Please note I use the term "showroom" extremely loosely...
Once they knew what we were looking for, they took us to their other factory down the road that manufactured similar items...
Here I am, sticking out like a sore thumb...
Note the guys on the left.... they were all asleep on the tables when we walked in and are having a stretch in this photo. Remember when you next buy a piece of 'made in china' furniture... someone has probably slept on it at some point!
The extend able table that M coveted... I hope we are invited to her dinner party to christen it...
Extend able table in non-extended mode....
All in all, the factories were a success. The tables were of excellent quality and an excellent price. The contacts that M had painstakingly made via email before our trips had mysteriously 'disappeared' so some of the prices which had previously been quoted to her were suddenly a little elaborated. However, the tables were still way cheaper than anything you could get in Hong Kong which is way cheaper than anything you could get in Australia.
C ordered one and M and I have email contacts and will probably order one soon. Trusty driver F offered to take us to another 'antique' showroom. We declined as we'd had enough by then. The prices of the 'antiques' were not bargain basement and we are all of the opinion that some pieces are nice in your home but you need to be careful as when you eventually go back to Australia your house could scream "I ONCE LIVED IN CHINA!!!".
With homemade Afghan biscuits in hand, we then toddled on to a modern furniture shopping centre...
Obviously business is booming in China as new shops were opening everywhere...
If you are in the market, I can tell you where to get these mud crab chairs. They would be a great talking point in any seaside home...
Trusty driver F then took us the the Shenzhen home ware centre for a quick browse on the way back to Hong Kong. C purchased some more furniture, we all got nick-nacks, trusty driver F organised his minions to pack the van with all our goodies, and we drove merrily back to Hong Kong with plastic glasses of wine in hand.
What a day!
Remember, I never said this was a blog about world peace...
Yours,
Pseudo Tai Tai xx
