Business: Shopping for Red Chinese Goodies

FORBIDDEN fruit always tastes sweetest, and that is one reason why U.S. travelers in the Orient have often been tempted to buy goods made in Red China. Not until last week did the State Department belatedly drop its total prohibition against such imports and declare that returning tourists may bring back $100 worth of Chinese merchandise (see THE NATION). The dispensation delighted shopkeepers in Singapore and along Hong Kong’s sleazy Upper and Lower Lascar Row (“Cat Street”). In some of the larger Peking-controlled emporiums in Hong Kong, English-speaking shopgirls stood like smiling spring flowers beneath red banners and Mao portraits, waiting to take some of the capital out of the capitalist.

What should the tourist buy? Certainly not Chinese clothes, leather goods or toys, which in general are costlier or less stylish than those from other countries. Chinese ivory is not so fine as Thailand’s. High-quality Chinese jade is exorbitant: an inchlong pendant, for example, sells for about $800.

In Singapore, probably the best shopping center for Peking products, worthwhile buys range from lower-quality jade rings to ground deer horns, which are reputed to be an aphrodisiac. For his $100, a U.S. traveler can bring home a six-color jade bracelet at $30, a 17-piece embroidered linen place-mat setting at $25, a 2-ft. by 4-ft. Tientsin carpet at $16, a man’s pure silk dressing gown at $10.50, a porcelain coffee set at $6, two pairs of children’s brocade pajamas at $4, a cloisonne-ware ashtray at $2.50 and a hand-painted silk scroll at $1.85. Total cost: $95.85.

Hong Kong offers gold-painted, hand-carved wood panels from temples ($10), lacquered tray sets ($40), fine porcelain vases ($30 and up) and embroidered tablecloths with matching napkins ($12 to $60). For anyone tired of the same old cocktails every night, one interesting bargain is rice wine from the mainland at 800 a pint.