Another typical China experience: Qi went to buy Christmas cards yesterday at Meilongzhen, one of the best shopping malls in Shanghai, and one of the few places to buy decent cards. She came back with nice Hallmark cards. But tonight when I was writing them I noted that they all have a sticker with the price on it – not on the plastic cover which is normal, but on the card itself! How stupid can they be? Someone must have opened all the plastic covers, taken out the card and put the sticker on the card itself. The only reason I can imagine is because of the price. RMB 9 (over 1 USD) per card is a very steep price for China, and people might want to let others know that they paid so much for a card to gain face. But I refuse to send out cards with a sticker on it, so we will go back to the store to either get new ones or get a refund.
Update: Good service, Hallmark took the cards back that we did not write on yet, and will give us new cards (although not the same cards). Will write blog entry about it later.