God **** Swords are Cheap in China!

[SimonM]

I scrounged through the various knick knack shops and junk stores in Lishi to find a Jian to practice with. I only ever found one. It's a knockoff of a dragon well sword, DEFINATELY not the real deal. Spring steel, blunt but well balanced and pretty. There is an engraving of a dragon with seven stars on one side and a phoenix on the other. The entire scabbard and hilt are covered in quite-pretty carvings; including the characters:

龍 (Well - my computer won't produce the right character) 劍

Of course it's a total lie! But for 120 RMB it was a steal; you can't get a wood sword for that price in Canada.

[SimonM]

I just took photos of the blade and scabbard on both sides. Sadly I only have a film camera so it will be a while before I am able to get them scanned onto a disc. As soon as I get them online I'll post 'em.

[David Jamieson]

Things are cheap there because wages are low and the standard of living is low.
It's a socio-economic thing really. You can't make a half decent sword in the americas for cheap because all the steel workers are in a union and no one will work for less than 22 dollars an hour. :p

This is why so many jobs are being outsourced and China is going to dominate the world economically in the next 25 years or less.

Afterall, who would take less wages to help their nation? Step to the front of the class...nobody? right, enjoy your unemployment benefits.

[SimonM]

I am aware that there are underlying socio-economic factors for cheapness of some goods in China. I didn't get a BA Hons in Sociology for nothing. :p

It's just two things:

1: The level of savings you get on goods varies dramatically depending on what you buy, Cell Phones and Digital Cameras are usually about the same price here that they are in Canada and yet even Taxi drivers will splurge on Cell Phones.

2: I didn't realize HOW cheap swords would be. This sword would be about $60 CAD (plus shipping) if you bought it out of a magazine, $70 from a store for comparable steel and the scabbard would be much plainer. I priced a $70 jian in Canada that was actually much worse than this one! I mean it's not combat steel by any means but it is a pretty sword and a usable practice sword and it was $19.83 CAD by the standard exchange rate!

[Shaolinlueb]

I am aware that there are underlying socio-economic factors for cheapness of some goods in China. I didn't get a BA Hons in Sociology for nothing. :p

It's just two things:

1: The level of savings you get on goods varies dramatically depending on what you buy, Cell Phones and Digital Cameras are usually about the same price here that they are in Canada and yet even Taxi drivers will splurge on Cell Phones.

2: I didn't realize HOW cheap swords would be. This sword would be about $60 CAD (plus shipping) if you bought it out of a magazine, $70 from a store for comparable steel and the scabbard would be much plainer. I priced a $70 jian in Canada that was actually much worse than this one! I mean it's not combat steel by any means but it is a pretty sword and a usable practice sword and it was $19.83 CAD by the standard exchange rate!

stuff is really priced well for stuff made in china. well stuff without major american brand names that is. i picked up a couple sowrds for 90 yuan and 80 yuan. nothing more then practice weapons though. which is good. light balanced and not very well balanced. friend picked up a pudao real cheap and a monk spade real cheap. i picked up feiyue's for like 6 dollars usd. its good stuff.

[SimonM]

Just one question: what sort of stores do you generally go to in order to get gear? I only ask because I have only found one store selling any weapons and that was the one sword I bought. Actually that's not quite true. A sporting goods store had a Dao for sale but it was complete and utter crap; not worth buying at any price. So is there some special trick or just keep the eyes peeled.

[Shaolinlueb]

Just one question: what sort of stores do you generally go to in order to get gear? I only ask because I have only found one store selling any weapons and that was the one sword I bought. Actually that's not quite true. A sporting goods store had a Dao for sale but it was complete and utter crap; not worth buying at any price. So is there some special trick or just keep the eyes peeled.


probably the local mall in the sporting goods section.

[SimonM]

And I delivered; here they are.