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Going to Shanghai : Where to buy tools?

dazz

Stainless
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Location
New Zealand
Hi
I am going to Shanghai at the end of the year. Does anyone know where to buy tooling?


I would like carbide turning tool holders, BT30 tool holders, boring head etc.
Servo motors (retro CNC conversion), ball screws.
All things that I can carry in check-in luggage.

Dazz
 
Hi
I am going to Shanghai at the end of the year. Does anyone know where to buy tooling?
Wander around on the east end of Beijing Rd, near the river. Go to the People's Square subway, just north of the Nanjing Rd pedestrian mess there's a ton of little shops. It's all mixed up in no particular order. Take a map, the streets are all squiggly and it's easy to get totally lost.

If you want anything in particular, it's easier to find it on 淘宝网. You'd probably want a friend to help you on taobao, it can be a zoo.

Don't forget to bargain.
 
I think you have the wrong plan. It is best to do the annual industrial fair if possible. It is well worthwhile and your choices are much better. Also consider using the Chinese postal service. The export mail services are Government subsidized and therefore very low cost, especially when considering overweight charges on aircraft.
 
Wander around on the east end of Beijing Rd, near the river. Go to the People's Square subway, just north of the Nanjing Rd pedestrian mess there's a ton of little shops. It's all mixed up in no particular order. Take a map, the streets are all squiggly and it's easy to get totally lost.

If you want anything in particular, it's easier to find it on 淘宝网. You'd probably want a friend to help you on taobao, it can be a zoo.

Don't forget to bargain.

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Nanjing DongLu is a few blocks north and parallel of Beijing Dong Lu where all the people tourist walk that street got maybe over 100 tool stores. taxi driver if ask take me to area with a lot of tool stores should easily take you there
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i take a Shiyong Wujin Shouce book with me. Standard Hardware handbook is like a universal standard tools and hardware book or catalog. point at picture of tool type and say knee yoe ma or do you have.
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last time i was there the smaller stores were being bought up by bigger massive stores. unfortunately that means you have to ask more to see tools. many keep tools on shelves and you have to ask to see. small stores often tools out on display
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you can be on that street all day. the tools stores go on for miles
 

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by the way any tools you buy Chinese standards are not necessarily the same. tapers might be close and threads might be metric.
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GB standards or Chinese standards are obviously far more common in China. i bought tv video camera once and learned about ntsc and pal tv systems. what you buy might not work in the usa.
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just saying. interesting going to tool stores but often slight differences are hard to notice
 
Hi
I already buy a whole lot of stuff from China through Aliexpress. It has saved me vast amounts of $$$$ compared to buying the same stuff locally. Good example are industrial switches which locally are 20x the price I can buy the exact same product directly from China including postage. Quality has almost been a non-issue. The few bad buys I have made, have been more than compensated by the money saved on the good buys.

Govt postage subsidy seems to stop for heavier items so things like ER32 collet sets and boring heads can cost as much to ship as the price to buy.

I am stopping in Shanghai on the way to Europe to exhibit at a couple of trade shows. So I thought I might as well pick up a few bits and pieces on the way.
 
Good example are industrial switches which locally are 20x the price I can buy the exact same product directly from China including postage.
There's a four-floor building full of electrical / electronic stuff right in that same area. You may think you died and went to heaven :)

DMF Tom's suggestion to bring prints of photos is a good one. Just point to the picture ..

I wouldn't put too much hope in finding certain things tho, it's more like a huge flea market. You'll probaly find a lot of stuff you weren't looking for, and not find things you want to find. Imagine a DVD store where they just pile everything into boxes, helter-skelter ....

I am stopping in Shanghai ...
The one thing to be careful of in that Nanjing Lu pedestrian street area is, it's where the predators go to hunt foreigners. It's not unsafe, nowhere in China is, but

1) Pickpockets. Lots of them. And they are good. Money and telephone in front pants pocket, please.

2) Whores. Worst place in Shanghai to get a whore. Suggest you shop elsewhere

3) If you are approached by a couple of cute college girls who invite you to practice English, see an art show, partake of a traditional tea (and cookies ?) ceremony, unh-unh. No way. When the bill for the tea comes it's like 10,000 rmb and you'll find the doors locked and the cute college girls disappeared.

If it's too good to be true ? Don't do it. That area is full of scammers.

And taxis are easy but a lot of them are dishonest, so learning to use the subway is good.
 
1) Pickpockets. Lots of them. And they are good. Money and telephone in front pants pocket, please.

Rohan Bags (or whatever your local knock off is) as pants. Not standard jeans / chinos or whatever. Double front pockets, normal outer and full size zip closure inner. Back pockets are zip closed too. Pack down to near enough nowt. Made to be washed out in the room sink overnight if need be yet be dry and crease free by morning.

Clive
 
Hi
Do the shops sell at marked prices or barter?

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my experience small places will barter but big stores will not.
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picture of Precision Frame level that is .02mm/m so i bolted on a less sensitive .4mm/m level so i could get some more use out of it.
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S20. and normal price $30-$40 but small store was not selling that many and i believe they sold it a cost just to get rid of it. small stores are often mom and pop type struggling to stay in business.
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big stores are showing up and are doing big business. store clerk often do not have authority to barter on price as the big boss might not even be in the store
 

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Do the shops sell at marked prices or barter?
You should try bartering even if they won't do it ... kinda ups your credibility, everyone in China barters.

But you can expect to pay the white-face tax, too. If they'd start out with a local at 50 rmb, they'll start you at 75 or 100. In general, that is. Not every single shop. Even in China different people are different :)

Rohan Bags (or whatever your local knock off is) as pants. Not standard jeans / chinos or whatever.
I didn't mean to imply that this place was unsafe :D Most everywhere in China is fine but bus stations, train stations, tourist spots especially, pickpockets are common. Just watch your ass. Especially when you get tired and thirsty and drop into the local KFC for a coke. The Nanjing Lu shopping area is maybe the worst in Shanghai for that. Common sense stuff, really.
 
Hi
I have spent a fair amount of time in foreign lands so I am comfortable wearing my back pack as a front pack. I don't think about how much less a local might pay for an item. I just look at what my savings are.

A little local knowledge gleaned from forums like this one can be a big help.
 
I didn't mean to imply that this place was unsafe :D

Unsafe or not hardly matters. I pretty much live in Rohan Bags purely because the pocket arrangement is so darn convenient. Left side zipped one holds phone and glasses case, I need short range and long range ones so hafta carry two pairs, money in right side zipped one. And nowt falls out whatever I do! Leaves the unzipped fronts for normal pocket stuff.

Thinking man (or gals) jeans.

Clive
 
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Hi
I have spent a fair amount of time in foreign lands so I am comfortable wearing my back pack as a front pack. I don't think about how much less a local might pay for an item. I just look at what my savings are.

A little local knowledge gleaned from forums like this one can be a big help.
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i have had stuff stolen from backpack as i was wearing it and walking in crowded Shanghai. someone to watch your back literally i understand the expression now
 
China has Carrefour and other international chains of Stores
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i went into one mega hardware store and its like a Home Depot but bigger. sells stuff from all over the world. that store you dont barter on price. also they told me taking pictures is not allowed. ? why ? dont know, but international brands got their own set of rules
 
also they told me taking pictures is not allowed. ? why ? dont know, but international brands got their own set of rules
Because people will go to a real store with real stuff, take photos, then use the photos to sell their fake junk on taobao. Fakes are common as fleas on a deer :)
 
I already buy a whole lot of stuff from China through Aliexpress.

Be careful, I don't know how to get a reference but there are THIEVES posting ads there. I lost $620 through a scam ordering there. The price was very attractive, so I wired the money, and two weeks later I asked for tracking info. Tracking showed the product was sitting in customs in Istanbul, and my contact said I needed to send $1300 extra "refundable" to get it past customs. I called a customs broker and was told in no uncertain terms that I had thrown my money away.
 
Be careful, I don't know how to get a reference but there are THIEVES posting ads there. I lost $620 through a scam ordering there. The price was very attractive, so I wired the money, and two weeks later I asked for tracking info. Tracking showed the product was sitting in customs in Istanbul, and my contact said I needed to send $1300 extra "refundable" to get it past customs. I called a customs broker and was told in no uncertain terms that I had thrown my money away.

So far I have avoided major issues. I have only raised 1 appeal out of over 250 trades and got a full refund. The appeal process is a black box meaning that there is no visibility of why or how a decision is made. There is no option to appeal the appeal process.

I haven't been conned yet but I have saved so much $$$$ that the occasional bad trade isn't going to stop me.

Recently I ordered 2x jackets for my wife and I. Both were the wrong size so I just ordered another two. Even after buying 4 jackets, buying 2 similar jackets locally would have cost about 3x more $$$.
 
i would not order online to people you do not know. if you are in China and want to spend a day shopping thats easy enough to do. many taxi drivers can take you to a area with many stores of a particular type. you might need to take different taxi as many taxi drivers are new to the city and dont know where to go.
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in my experience sure some stuff is cheaper if bought in China but actually Walmart and HF stores in the USA are actually priced not much different than prices in China. if you know somebody living in China (friend or relative or even a store owner you have done business with before) then they can do shopping and mail it to the USA.
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i have also known people to buy Nike shoes in the USA and ship to China as then they know they probably got real Nike shoes. the fakes are so good even Chinese have hard time telling real from fakes. basically Chinese ordering stuff from USA and shipped to China trying to get real stuff and not fakes
 
Wandering around the shops with a semi-mission is part of the entertainment value of visiting far away places. If I actually buy something, that would be a bonus. If I don't buy anything, it will still be an interesting trip.

The Internet and mail order has literally opened up the world to small time buyers/sellers like myself. Trading with someone you haven't met is always a risk. I might take a few hits now and then but the benefits far out way the negatives.
 








 
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