NOW, FARMHOUSES MADE IN CHINA
Whether it's tiles or tables,
Ganesha statues or faux Italian sofas, Foshan has become the go-to shopping
destination for Indian home owners
You could call this the
selfie spot of my house, says Chi tra Gopalakrishnan, point ing to her lily
pond with green tiles and a life-sized statue of a dancing woman at her
farmhouse in Delhi. Most of the little water bodies that dot her picturesque
threeacre property are lined with tiles sourced from China.
A combination of lower
prices and perfect rip-offs has home owners, interior designers and architects
making a beeline for Foshan in China, instead of Italy, to buy everything from
tiles and tables, to wood and statuettes for their houses. And over the last five
years, the trend has caught on across the country .
Gopalakrishnan, a social
development consultant, was surprised when someone suggested she go to China to
pick up accessories for her house. “The very idea seemed preposterous,“ she
says. But once she did her research, she decided to make the trip.
Armed with an Excel sheet
that listed every detail, from the number of electric lights to bales of
curtain material, Gopalakrishnan and her architect flew to Foshan in Guangdong
province of China. “It's incredible. Specific malls cater to whatever you need
for the house. The variety on offer is mindboggling,“ she says.
Foshan has grown from a
sleepy hamlet in the Pearl River Delta to an aggregation of industrial clusters
that produce furniture, textiles, ceramics and more. “The country is indeed the
world's factory for all kinds of material,“ says Anil Bhaskar, a Pune-based
architect, who is a regular visitor to China. “I have picked a lot of material,
especially furniture, from there. India offers great stuff, but its strength
lies in the traditional, carved variety . Ever since minimalism has become the
mantra, many buy in China since it sells stuff that is trendy and sleek at
lower prices than the West.“
For around six years,
Chennaibased architect Chiraag Kapoor has been flying some of his clients to
China to help them choose their furniture.“This kind of shopping is not
possible in any other part of the globe. While the destination for cutting-edge
furni ture innovation and design is Italy, it is more sensible to source from
China,“ says Kapoor, who gets 60% of his highend luxury furniture from China.
Anu Kapoor, one of Chiraag
Ka poor's clients, says it was as much a holiday for her family as it was busi
ness. “We stayed at a hotel near Shunde (the furniture market in Foshan). We
would shop all day and at 5pm, when the shops shut, we would go for foot
massages. We had a translator who helped us bargain with the store own ers,“
she says.
Ritu Mahajan headed to
Foshan when she was doing up her MRI centre in Delhi's Defence Colony . “I was
keen on modern decor and my research showed that the Foshan malls had what I
was looking for. I could order 150 chairs of the same colour without be ing
told that so many were not available at one go,“ she says. Faux bamboo fit tings
and Ganesha and Shivlinga foun tains made in China welcome visitors to her
imaging centre. “Would one im agine that you'd find such traditional stuff in
China?“ she asks.
Local manufacturers are a
little rattled by the Chinese threat. “Indian retailers import, spend money on
logistics in India and retail space. All this adds to the cost and therefore a
product in China may be cheaper,“ says a member of the Association of Furniture
Manufacturers of India.
Many European brands have
also set up manufacturing units in China to cater to clientele from across the
world.Harsh Jain, a Mumbai-based interior designer and architect, says the
scale is ridiculous -“it's like a huge mandi.“
Language can be an
impediment but the Chinese have overcome that through professional handlers who
double up as translators, agents and guides. They help you inspect, bargain and
buy as well as supervise the shipping so that it reaches your doorstep safely .
Getting to Guangdong and
Foshan via Hong Kong is also fairly easy . “But the effort would be worthwhile
only if one were to buy in bulk,“ says Jain. The general thumb rule is that you
order a container (in sizes of 20 or 40 cubic feet) for cost-effective
shipping. And, of course, shipping could take a few weeks to a couple of months.
Businessman Amit Agarwal
who was looking for furniture for his 15,000sqft bungalow outside Mumbai went
to Guangdong with his architect.“In any case, most of the high-end showrooms
here keep stuff imported from China,“ says Agarwal. “The whole experience was
amazing. I'll take off for Foshan once again when I build my next home.“
With inputs from Kamini
Mathai in Chennai
HOW TO SHOP TILL YOU DROP
Closest airport is
Guangzhou which is a 45 min cab ride to Foshan. From Hong Kong, it's a 3 12
half hour bus ride or a ferry ride to Shunde You could stay in Foshan or if
you're only shopping, then in Lecong, which is home to the world's largest
furniture market.Lecong Avenue has several desi restaurants such as Best of
India Curry Palace and Lotus Indian You can hire professional handlers -there
are several Indian ones too -who double up as translators, and shopping guides.
They help you inspect, bargain and buy as well as supervise the shipping so
that it reaches your doorstep safely. They charge between 3% and 5% of the
furniture cost Hardware, lights and tile showrooms are all 30 mins to an hour
away from Lecong To figure out the final cost, the rule of thumb is about 60%
to 70% more than the price you pay for the product in China
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Purnima Sharma
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