Shopping in Hong Kong, China, and the US by randyw

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· @randyw · (edited)
$39.48
Shopping in Hong Kong, China, and the US
## Plus an extra little treat - the Star Ferry

![DSC00014a.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNzvr4Vac9hva3GQZmVfpgXWMCRAHFz9gFqQyFh96i8cG/DSC00014a.jpg)


I decided to upgrade my cell phone, and that Hong Kong was the place to do it. Hong Kong phones provide access to the Google services, which phones purchased in China do not. I had rooted my previous phone, but was still unable to access Google, unless I was willing to burn it into the ROM (I was not).

While I was there, I decided to upgrade my camera.


So without a whole lot of shopping around, this is what I found. Prices listed are from the Ocean Center Harbor City mall in Hong Kong, Taobao in China (which I expect  to be similar to prices here in Yulin), and Amazon and B&H Photo in the U.S. Amazon seems to be a good point of comparison for just about everything, while B&H Photo seemed to come up often with Google searches.

Prices in the left three columns are in the local currency. Prices in the right columns are converted to USD for comparison. The prices I actually paid are in green.

![cost comparison.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUvvyKGjSLMKperebqjNSX4QwVfa2QPECKx2BL2wdfkrK/cost%20comparison.jpg)

China and Hong Kong do not charge sales taxes, which you may have to pay in the U.S. Merchants on Taobao often do not charge shipping.

The Hong Kong merchants were extremely pleasant, helpful, and knowledgeable. One even referred me to another shop across the harbor when he didn't have the phone I wanted - Samsung Galaxy S8.


The Hong Kong merchants threw in a LOT of little extras, including an external battery pack, carrying pouch, 32 GB SD card, protector filter, and UV filter computer glasses.

![P1050865a.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPcKCcgG1izNihTUzGbKtpUzdq9SseDEm3CTTtrpECsUK/P1050865a.jpg)

AND . . . when we left the shopping center, we decided to take the ferry across to Central. I was surprised to see that the ferry was the Star Ferry, which not very long ago was the primary means of crossing between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula at Tsim Sha Tsui

> A crossing of Victoria Harbour on a Star Ferry has been named by the National Geographic of Traveler as one of the "fifty places of a lifetime".

![Susie Wong ferrya.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcB8gv5wENnMnEaTd3dPq7hkJYuZoqnNYEWvk6BX9P2ZU/Susie%20Wong%20ferrya.jpg)

http://www.starferry.com.hk/sites/default/files/topbanner.jpg

http://www.starferry.com.hk/en/Introduction

The Star Ferry was one os the first scenes in a Hollywood film filmed in Hong kong in 1960, starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan, and played a key role in their meeting.

From the South China Morning Post
### [The World of Suzie Wong, 55 years on: archives opened to revisit 1960s Hong Kong’s main event](http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/film-tv/article/1878049/real-world-suzie-wong-archives-opened-relive-1960s-hong-kongs-main)
> This pretty woman turned heads in Hong Kong before Julia Roberts

See 
### [Gwulo: Old Hong Kong](https://gwulo.com/sites/gwulo.com/files/styles/large/public/thumbnails/image/vlcsnap-2015-05-14-21h31m45s1632.jpg?itok=A70K0Vhb)
for some interesting comparisons between the filming locations and present day Hong Kong.

All in all,  I think I would just as soon do my shopping in China. Buying the cell phone in Hong Kong was a necessity for this Westerner, however, because of the local (Chinese) regulations in effect. Many English language websites are affected by the restrictions of the Great Firewall. This includes some of the Communist Party's own English-language websites, include the People's Daily, Xinhua, and many others which use Google, Facebook, and/or YouTube functionalities.

Cameras do not seem to be affected by Chinese regulation. You can simply choose English or Chinese within the camera's setup.

#randyw  
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@amirhayat ·
,@randyw nice post i like it
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@randyw ·
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@originalworks ·
originalworks
The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @randyw to be original material and upvoted(1.5%) it! 
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@buildawhale ·
<p>This post has received a 2.94 % upvote from @buildawhale thanks to: @randyw.
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@appreciator ·
<p>This post has received gratitude of 4.29 % from @appreciator thanks to: @randyw.</p>
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You got a 6.27% upvote from @upme requested by: @randyw. <br> Send at least 1 SBD to @upme with a post link in the memo field to receive upvote next round. <br> To support our activity, please vote for my master @suggeelson, as a [STEEM Witness](https://steemit.com/~witnesses) 
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