Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

Use bargaining to your advantage, start with 50% of quoted price and retreat softly . Never be violent as these fellows can be nasty.

Unique Suggestions: Go around the market once or twice without touching or asking but looking at all the wares. This way the shopkeepers assume you have asked the price somewhere else also. Bargaining becomes easier.

Fun Alternatives: Go to malls, almost fixed prices everywhere. Either take it or leave it. It was the same in malaysia and singapore.

Its now december 2009. Chinatown in KL was once relavent as the only place u could really truly buy a comprehensive range of knocked off fake designer goods, certainly that was the case in my first visit when i stayed for 18 months due to work in 2003-2004.
But these days you have the sanitised and more civilised environments of the Times Square markets which are very cheap where they sell sunglasses, dvds, handbags and t shirts and any thing else u could get in chinatown. Also bukit bintang has many many markets now.
Chinatown is only really recommened by me, if you like cheap chinese food and want to sit down somewhere to observe the sights and sounds.
Apart from that,given that theyre are now so many markets , cleaner and cheaper in the rest of KL, avoid this place full of rude, aggressive and bullying traders out to scam u. Also pickpocketing here is bad

Fun Alternatives: Go To Times Square, Bukit Bintang or the equally culturally rich masjid india night market on saturday night.

China town is a well known place with low prices. That is not true. . They will tell you it costs 200 to buy it where actual it is worth 20 only or even less!

Unique Suggestions: Look around in near by malls and shopping centers before your visit china town to know the prices.

Fun Alternatives: In my view, doing the whole shopping in BB, Lot 10, or times sequare was a good idea.

When you're walking along Petaling Street (Chinatown), please be careful of your belongings as well as rude sellers. I hardly go there but I was there recently just to look around. I asked for the price of a wallet and he said an expensive price, which is normal. I bargained and negotiated a price but it didn't come to a price that I like so I said thank you and leave. The seller then chased after me and started shouting directly at my face and was holding my hand. Lucky for me as there were two policemen walking past me and I walked out of there as fast as I could.

Unique Suggestions: You need to be stern and wise when dealing with them. Just be careful.

If you don't intend to buy, don't ask the price. I know we just want to compare prices of different stalls, but it doesn't really work that way here. You'll get pestered, and a harsh scolding. Ask only if you intend to buy, and bargain down the price.

But not really much to buy - it sells mostly obviously fake designer brands.

If you lost some money that should be OK.

Plenty of poor people around, so at least someone else can gain from what you lost.

But don't lose you warts and moles and also your dignity if you come out of this with more then before you went in !

But then, it's a free world, you can always try if you're convinced ..

Unique Suggestions: Get your friend to go along with you !

I was always told to keep your bags close as there were pick pockets out in the streets but i never experienced a problem due to my advice received.

One night while in China Town i brought two t-shirts medium however it wasn't until i got home that i realised the man had given me a large size!

So pls check what u are buying

I did but my dearest didnt.. as a result.. i got almost practically ignored whereas he got bugged everywhere he went. Which is fine for me since i'm not victim but hella! Selling a pair of sandals for $60 and when we told the salesguy that the price tag read $30 he said the price tag's old.

And all the stalls sell are imitations of branded goods

Unique Suggestions: like i say, look poor!!

Chinatown is great for fake bags, clothes, DVDs, everything. But they rip off tourists VVEEERRYYY bad. You MUST bargain. If you're white, they call a price at least twice as high and expect u to pay almost full.

Unique Suggestions: 1. Go in the morning. Morning is when everything is the cheapest, and it is less crowded, so less chance of pickpockets getting to your purses.

KL's Chinatown (Petaling Street) is undergoing serious roadworks, and many walkways, roads and lanes are blocked. You have to be either a really agile person, or a patient saint to make your way around. Oh yeah, some boardings can lead you to a dead end. Last I heard, the place is done by April 2004.

Unique Suggestions: Forget about bringing your baby and a pram there! It'll stress you up.

There are a lot of roadside stalls here selling T-shirts, imitation watches, VCD/DVD discs and so on. Good to see, nice to watch... but if you are not going to buy them, don't ask for the price or bargain with them. That's because if you walk away without buying, the stall owners may scold you!!

Trinkets for sale.

At such prices, you should not complain.
But those things seem like trash.

Somebody might find them useful.