Yes for a communist country they do take to capitalistic ways like fish to water.

I recently took my 4th trip there. My first trips were to the big cities and my impressions were the same as yours: consumerism is on the rise; however, now I’ve started visiting outlying areas and much of the country still lives without many of the things we take for granted. It would be interesting to see the wealth and income gap between the rich and the poor.

Recently I went to the Guanxi region in the southwest, bordering Vietnam. Although there are major tourist areas (Guilin being the biggest tourist attraction to Chinese) most of the areas are dirt poor.

Didn’t you find that, even though the price tags were high, the cost of everything is negotiable?

Of course they were nicer to you: you’ve got beaucoup tourist bucks! The most important phrase I learned was: bu yao la! (I don’t want it) used to fend off the peddlers of kitschy trinkets and crap.