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Compare and contrast shopping as a leisure activity of British Culture with that of your own culture

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Compare and contrast shopping as a leisure activity of British Culture with that of your own culture
Becoming a foreign student has given me the opportunity of living in two cities at the same time. Living in each city regularly has let me see many similarities and differences between both. In this essay, I will mainly compare and contrast shopping as a leisure activity between United Kingdom and Hong Kong. I will look at the kinds of activities, attitudes towards spending, the view of shops and the opening hours of shops.

First of all, both United Kingdom and Hong Kong are consumer societies. People can find all sorts of things to do like shopping in malls or streets. The appearance of the malls in United Kingdom primarily comes from the fact that they feature more than hundreds of stand-alone shops, cafes, restaurants and a huge number of department stores, in which there are wide varieties of types of shops. Moreover, most shops are chain stores, but among those that are not, there is much individuality. (O’ Driscoll, J. 1995 P.148) The situation of shopping malls is as common in Hong Kong.

Both societies, moreover, like buying and selling products through online. Nowadays, the rapid development of the Internet advances the online trading. The customers do not need to walk on the streets, they just have to browse the website of that company and the shop will provide the pictures of the products for you to purchase. For example, the Amazon.com is popular in both United Kingdom and Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Tourism Board, 2012)

Despite some important similarities in shopping between United Kingdom and Hong Kong, there are significant differences as well.

One obvious difference is the attitude towards spending. The British are not very adventurous shoppers. They like reliability and buy goods that are preferably with the price clearly marked. Of course, they are not very keen on haggling over prices. (O’ Driscoll, J. 1995 P.148) In contrast, Hong Kong People spend lots of money on buying things they like. Also, people in Hong Kong like to bargain with the

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