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Trip to Hong Kong


Furu

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Hello dear RWG-friends,

I haven't been to active lately. Mostly due to hard work.

I'm on my way to the China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong.

I'd like to return home with the second generation PloProf. Bad thing is, I haven't got a visa for China. So I have to stay in HK.

- Anyone got ideas how to spend my spare time in HK?

- Is there any dealer willing to send a representative over with a watch or two?

Regards

F

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The best dealers you will find here on the rep board. You could always of course organise to ship the watches to person you know in HK, and thus minimize the risk of customs of sending the stuff through EU customs...

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The best dealers you will find here on the rep board. You could always of course organise to ship the watches to person you know in HK, and thus minimize the risk of customs of sending the stuff through EU customs...

Better yet, have the rep shipped directly to your hotel. Any decent seller won't charge you for express shipping from GZ to HK, and it should arrive in 1-2 days.

Arrange it ahead of time with the front desk to make sure there's no confusion. Unless you're staying at the lowest of the low-budget flophouses, they should be able to easily accommodate your request.

There's no shortage of things to see and do in Hong Kong. Start by taking the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui, exit, start walking. It's a great city! :chinese:

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Better yet, have the rep shipped directly to your hotel. Any decent seller won't charge you for express shipping from GZ to HK, and it should arrive in 1-2 days.

Arrange it ahead of time with the front desk to make sure there's no confusion. Unless you're staying at the lowest of the low-budget flophouses, they should be able to easily accommodate your request.

There's no shortage of things to see and do in Hong Kong. Start by taking the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui, exit, start walking. It's a great city! :chinese:

Back home!

I've had an amazing trip to HK. And I got an express visa, so I had trip into Shenzhen for some replica shopping. Couldn't find watches in our usual quality, but still god reps. Didn't buy any watches, instead I bought a nice LV wallet.

Thanks for the replies! Now I'll contact PT for a PloProf :rolleyes:

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Back home!

I've had an amazing trip to HK. And I got an express visa, so I had trip into Shenzhen for some replica shopping. Couldn't find watches in our usual quality, but still god reps. Didn't buy any watches, instead I bought a nice LV wallet.

Thanks for the replies! Now I'll contact PT for a PloProf :rolleyes:

I had a case that took me to Paris, so I decided to buy my wife a LV purse. While at LV, they had a wallet I couldn't resist - I never in my life ran a wallet thru the laundry, but this thing has made the trip twice! No ill effects though.

Which rep wallet did you buy?

Bill

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I had a case that took me to Paris, so I decided to buy my wife a LV purse. While at LV, they had a wallet I couldn't resist - I never in my life ran a wallet thru the laundry, but this thing has made the trip twice! No ill effects though.

Which rep wallet did you buy?

Bill

The Damier Graphite Canvas - Multiple Wallet

With very nice packaging and a 91% discount ;)

I regret not buying the matching belt. I guess KB can sort that out B)

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sounds like you had fun in Tsim Sha Tsui.. next time we'll explorer some other areas

flex

Better yet, have the rep shipped directly to your hotel. Any decent seller won't charge you for express shipping from GZ to HK, and it should arrive in 1-2 days.

Arrange it ahead of time with the front desk to make sure there's no confusion. Unless you're staying at the lowest of the low-budget flophouses, they should be able to easily accommodate your request.

There's no shortage of things to see and do in Hong Kong. Start by taking the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui, exit, start walking. It's a great city! :chinese:

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edit: I just saw you are already back, hehe silly me. Well, may this serve as a reference for future shoppers in HK then!

What nationality are you? You can get a visa for 3 days at the border to China, it takes at most 40minutes with the MTR (metro) from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. Unless you are American (or french I think, not sure though) you can get a visa right at the border for around 30 Euros. You are not allowed to travel to other parts of China though, but this is not necessary.

Once you get off the MTR, there is a huge mall right at the Lo Wu border station, they sell all the replicas you can find here, albeit the really high end stuff will sometimes not be on display. Take pictures with you on your phone and keep asking for the best 'swiss' quality and they will get you anything you want and could possibly find here.

Here is a picture of the MTR map in Hong Kong: http://www.china-mike.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hong-kong-MTR-system-map-1024x726.jpg

take the light blue line to Lo Wu, make sure you take the one to LO WU and _NOT_ Lok Ma Chau, you cannot get a visa at Lok Ma Chau and the mall is also not there!

If you have 10 extra minutes and want to have a pleasant trip and save a few bucks, ride first class (scan your octopus card for the extra fare) and get off ONE station before Lo Wu, check out with your octopus card, enter the platform again and this time check in for 2nd class only. That way you will ride 95% of the trip in first class and ride the last part 2nd class, because that is the part that is most expensive (e.g. from central hong kong to one stop before Lo Wu second class is about 10hkd, while the one stop further is 35hkd). Just a tip ;)

Once you passed the passport control and exit the train station, the mall is the first building on the right (you may have to ride the escalator up one level), I don't think you can miss it. Make sure you WATCH your pockets, there are lots of pickpockets there! Also, don't show around lots of money when you pay someone.

All in all the trip does not take a lot of time, you can easily go there, buy something and be back in central Hong Kong in about 3 hours (although I would spend much more time there since you can basically buy anything there).

Price levels... they were a LOT lower about 1.5 years ago. I negotiated prices for some reps during winter 09/10 and all the reps I could find here were at least 100Euros cheaper in Shenzhen (however I didn't get these prices until I said 'final offer', got up and tried to leave). Last time I tried to buy watches there, about 3 months ago, the prices were a bit higher, still less than what any dealer here charges.

Everyone here (mostly people who don't know what they are talking about) tell people that GZ is the place to shop for reps and that they are cheapest there. This is NOT true, while they are in fact mostly made/assembled there, the dealers (I believe most of the dealers who also sell here) have formed a cartel and local merchants are not allowed to sell to you below a certain price (usually the same price as you can get on the forum). I'm not sure what kind of pressure is involved there, but I find it quite odd that they are unwilling to sell for just 30 Euros less than Forum prices, especially since every Chinese merchant I have dealt with outside of the rep-watch business will sell to you as long as he makes some marginal profit.

If you need anymore info, let me know! Unfortunately I'm not in Hong Kong right now, otherwise I could show you around.

edit: I just saw you are already back, hehe silly me. Well, may this serve as a reference for future shoppers in HK then!

Edited by slay
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  • 2 months later...

The best dealers you will find here on the rep board.

This is absolutely true.

There are reps in HK, good ones even if you stick your nose in the cracks, but my friends in HK - both locals and expats - slip across to the mainland to buy theirs.

Prolly not what you want to hear but true.

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Thanks for all the replies, and a good guide slay!

Ordered a PloProf from Precious Time as a memory of the trip. It's super nice! Really chunky.

Being 21 years old and doing international project-management consulting is freakkin awesome.

I'm lucky, but I work a lot too! I love you guys!

Edited by Furu
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So, I was over in Shenzen this weekend. Interesting market if you compare to Beijing. All the watch dealers look the same. Thinking about standards I brought with me one of PAMs with swiss movement as a benchmark. Almost all dealers could go get quality reps once asked. It also seemed that they where all getting from the same source. So, for anyone going. Decide what rep you want and they will fetch it for you. Prices where about the same as the dealers here, even a little bit higher. I have been over 10 times in Beijing so I know my way around the markets, but these guys where tough and would not budge. So, don't expect to get a bargain. I buy because I sometimes like to feel and look at what I am buying before I do and not because of the price.

Some correction to the note above that this is all done in 3 hours. That might be a bit optimistic. First keep in mind that you need to pay for Visa with Chinese currency, then Visa process takes about 30 minutes depending on how many there are. So, at least budget with 4 hours.

And Hong Kong... time of my life. If you are thinking about it, go. Its a magical city like no other.

/Luc

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Back home!

I've had an amazing trip to HK. And I got an express visa, so I had trip into Shenzhen for some replica shopping. Couldn't find watches in our usual quality, but still god reps. Didn't buy any watches, instead I bought a nice LV wallet.

Thanks for the replies! Now I'll contact PT for a PloProf :rolleyes:

We are planning a holiday From the UK and looking for a location where we can use air miles. Hong Kong is top of the list at the moment but we were wondering how long we should spend in Hong Kong and where else we should visit in the vicinity? It will be our first visit. Is travelling from Hong Hong to other parts of China relatively easy to negotiate?.Thanks, in advance.

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depends.. if you are into going to the rep market, pls goto Guangzhou. if you are interested in some general shopping and shopping for your lady, you can easily goto Shenzhen from HK by train. if you are into the new casino, then you will have to gooto Macau..

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  • 4 weeks later...

hey guys

I'm permanently based in HK and I'd be interested in going up to shenzen with anyone on a rep shopping trip if you guys want. I haven't actually been to the Lo Wu mall ever and I'm itching to get myself a few Panerai and IWC reps. Send me a PM to organize a trip, who knows we could make this a monthly thing !!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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