Here are some thoughts I have about buying cloths and other things in comparison between China and U.S. A few months ago, my cousins came to the U.S for sightseeing tours; I was really thrilled about their trip, and got time off just so I can accompany them on the trips in NJ and NY. Two weeks before their arrival, they emailed me about what they wanted to do in the area. The first thing I noticed was their demand on buying various brands of clothes and shoes. I was really surprised; after all, these things can be found in Shanghai, why did they want to buy these things here. They also asked to go to the Westbury mall, which they know from the web as the place to go to buy nice things. So I plotted the trip map, and added the Westbury shopping mall on the map. Here¨s a side note, Westbury is a premium shopping mall, which means it has all kinds of famous clothing and shoe stores, I used to go there when I need to buy some cloths, back when I was living the NYC, but after a while, I found that local malls have same sort of clothing store, although not as concentrated as the Westbury. Anyway, the day came when my cousins arrived, it¨s January, and there was a huge snow storm on that day, they were amazed by the plowing trucks, and the sheer amount of snow on the road. They told me that they have never see storms like this in Shanghai, well, I guess they love the snow so much, they spend the twilight hours outside, taking pictures and such. Next day, we drove straight to the Westbury mall, needless to say, all the snow have been cleared from the store fronts, that surprised them too, they haven¨t seen such efficiency in snow removal, they told me, when there¨s snow in Shanghai, it usually takes some time for the walkways and store fronts to be cleared. Because they use brooms instead of shovels to remove the snow, I guess Shanghai people should have learned about the shovels already. My cousins keeps exclaiming how the clothes and shoes are so cheaply priced, that really surprised me, and I asked how much these things cost in China, Shanghai in particular. The answer astonished me, generally speaking, everything costs 2 to 3 times higher in Shanghai, I mean, most of these things are made in China; there should be no or little transportation costs involved. I understand there¨s the matter of taxes, and tariffs, but it¨s ridiculous how these things are priced, yet my cousins told me these things sell like crazy, sometimes they need to wait a couple of months for it to be in stock. I don¨t know why that is so. These clothes and shoes are famous brands, but in the U.S, most people don¨t pay the full prices for them, in fact, most of these brands are always on sale. I think these brands are ripping Chinese people off, what we should do is really boycott them. I hope the young people in China would stop buying these things, and drive the prices down.