Buying guide for Chinese rainwear.

[Kinky-In-Scotland]

I've been asked on another website how I go about buying rainwear from China and so I wrote a buying guide, I'm not sure if anyone here would be interested but I thought I'd post it here any way, some one may find it useful! Grab a coffee first though!

There;s been a nit of interest in some of the Chinese rainwear I have so I thought I'd let you know how to get your hands on it.

Firstly, some background information, the site where all the goodies are listed is called Taobao, it's a trade site offering absolutely anything within China, you can't buy directly from the site, you need to go through an agent site. After trying a few of these agent sites I can highly recommend Yoybuy, they're the most professional one I've found and I've never had a single problem with them, I'd even go as far as to say I'm impressed with their service.

Secondly is to be careful with sizing, I found out the hard way with my first order, as a rule, it goes like this: XXXL = UK XL (up to 185cm tall), XXL = UK L (up to 180cm tall), XL = UK M (up to 175cm tall) and L = UK S (up to 165 tall). These are only estimates, I'm 188cm tall and found that anything XXXL is usually a good fit for me, most of the good manufacturers on Taobao will have a size table on their listings to let you see what height a person each of the sizes they offer will fit. Boots and waders are a bit hit and miss, some producers are accurate with their sizing but just as many seem to be out by one size, ie their size 44 is only our size 43, (or their 10, UK 9), I've found that if any boot sizes are out by one it's always smaller.

Next is the currency, with Taobao being an internal site all prices are in Yuan Rimnimbi (CNY), luckily the exchange rate has stayed pretty much the same the whole time I've been using the site and is a piece of cake to convert, it's 1 GBP = 10 CNY ( just under to be precise but close enough to call it 10, 9.62), for our American friends, 1 GBP = 1.55 USD when I checked today. So if you see a pair of PVC waders costing 100 CNY on Taobao is going to cost you 10 GBP or 15 USD (yes, stuff is really that cheap!)

The only other thing to bare in mind is the weight of all the goodies you buy, don't go mad because every thing is so cheap because you still have to get it shipped to you, the heavier your order, the more you'll pay to get it to you.

Down to business! I'm basing this on using the Google Chrome browser with the IM Translate extension, if you're using other browsers I'd advise you find a plug in that can translate webpages into your language automatically.

For simply browsing Taobao to see what they have to offer you're going to need 2 tabs open in your browser, the first is [Google Translate][https://translate.google.com/], this is because Taobao only accepts Chinese text in the search box, anything else and the website just thinks you're daft! On the Google Translate page there are 2 text boxes, the white one on the left is where you type in what it is you want to look for in your own language, the box on the right is where the translation will appear for you to copy and paste into the search box on Taobao, remember to click on the drop down menu just above the output box and set the language to Chinese (Simplified).

Now you've got the Chinese text sorted out, it's time to go shopping! In the second tab go to [Taobao][http://www.taobao.com/market/global/index_new.php], the search box is at the top of the page with the orange button to the right of it. Now before you go rushing off, there's something I should tell you, the Chinese don't have the same names for things that we do in the west, here's some examples:

Translate... if you're looking for...

Launching pants = Waders
fishing raincoat = Heavier duty rainwear
paddy field boots = unlined thigh waders (more like thick PVC stockings)
PVC raincoat = lighter weight more fashion rainwear
anti bee suit = very interesting thick unlined one piece PVC suits
split raincoat = Rain suit, jacket and trousers, doesn't mean they're ripped!!

Those are some of the searches I do on Taobao, you can try translating anything and serching for it, the ones I pointed out are just some of the quirkier ones.

Now you've had a good look around you're no doubt wanting to buy something, this a where the agent site comes in I mentioned at the start, open a third tab in your browser and go to [Yoybuy][http://www.yoybuy.com/en/], once you've registered and have an account you're ready to go!

There's plenty of buying guides on Yoybuy to show you how it works, but it's essentially this, sign in to your Yoybuy account and click on 'Add URL' on the left, find what you want to buy on Taobao, copy the address of that webpage over into the URL box on Yoybuy and click 'Buy now', that's basically it.

When you're on Taobao, try to look out for the weight of the items your buying in the listings and keep a not of it as when you come to arrange the shipping in Yoybuy they ask you for the weight of all the goods, (why I don't know, they're packing the parcel!), rainsuits range from 1 to 2kg, PVC chest waders average 3.5kg and one piece suits with boots are around 5, not all suppliers give weights but the majority of the good ones do.

And finally, what you buy is up to you, this is just a guide on how to get it, bare in mind this is China you're dealing with, quality can be an issue, for all the hits I've had on Taobao I've had misses too, if you see 2 things that look identical from different suppliers always go for the dearer one, the stuff is so cheap any way the difference is only going to be a couple of quid / bucks but chances are it is dearer because the quality is likely to be a bit better, you get what you pay for!

Happy shopping, and if you do strike it lucky and find and amazing piece of rain gear, SEND ME THE LINK! I WANT IT TOO!!!

[latexstorm]

Saw your post on Fetlife, as well. Very interesting! I've been poking around a bit, and it definitely takes patience, and a bit of trial and error, to get results. Looking forward to spending more time there.

[JanetandNick]

Now there's an interesting costume
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... 0%23detail
Janet

[sergiouk]

Also available from AliExpress for £60 currently which is much simpler albeit probably a bit more expensive.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fishing- ... 08926.html

Tempting!

[Kinky-In-Scotland]

Very tempting suit, I have had a couple of these already but found them to be too short for me, I guess 6'2" isn't a common size in China!