Souvenirs: The Search for Spock

I wanted to pick up a few things to bring over to China as gifts. There's one major problem though. Almost everything I'm looking at is made in China. If I got this stuff for them, they would have basically manufactered the product in China, shipped it overseas to Canada, and I would be delivering it back to them after paying a substantial markup. It's actually ticking me off. I didn't know that China makes almost everything now. Seriously... check out the stuff on your table beside your computer right now. I bet it's all made in China. What China needs to do is actually own the stores that sell their stuff at marked up prices... like Walmart.

Anyway, I digress. The point is that I still have to find decent stuff to bring over as gifts. There's the basic tacky stuff, like chocolate moose droppings, maple leaf pins, mini CN tower replicas, maple syrup, and Canada keychains. It's all horrible horrible stuff. I've decided that Canadian ice wine is a good bet. I'm sure they don't have a lot of that in China. I've been told that Canadian ginseng is better than Chinese ginseng, but that's not something I really see myself giving to someone as a present. I actually haven't finished my packing so it looks like I'm going to be doing some last minute spending at the duty-free shop at the airport.

In keeping with the title, I have to say that "The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many." In this case, my need to buy stuff for myself during my vacation! I hear that China and Hong Kong as excellent places to shop for affordable things like clothes and electronics. Food is also cheap there, but I have been told by everyone to avoid the street vendors. I really can't wait to go. I mean, this topic has been pretty much dominating my blog. I like to throw some variety in my blog, but it's been a solid week or two of me talking about this vacation.