Last night, me and my friend were looking for KFC restaurant at the Shenzhen airport. A few ppl has been telling me on how great is the KFC in China, so I really want to try it so I can share with you whether it is true or not.Unfortunately, the KFC restaurant is in the old wing, there is only one restaurant called "Golden Chi Lin" or something in the new wing airport. Thus, me and my friend decided to go and get some food at the restaurant.
The restaurant is not a fancy one, it looks like the regular Chinese restaurant that sells roast chicken, roast goose meat, BBQ pork and stuff. So we both sat down and ask the waitress to hand us the menu. Let me tell you, the moment I open up the menu, I started to swear 'WTF?' inside my heart. Guess what? A regular roast chicken + BBQ pork rice is selling at RMB88!! That is like RM47-48 per plate of 'Chicken rice'? Then my eyes start to scroll down a bit, trying to flip over the menu, trying to look for minimal damage... If I am not mistaken, I found the cheapest mineral water RMB20! Wow!! That is what I called "Monopoly business"!
I look at my friend, and he looked back at me with a grin on his face. Finally and thank god that he opened his mouth, he tell the waitress that we don't plan to dine here. We stood up and walked out of the restaurant. Right after we walked passed the restaurant entrance, he sweared and told me that the food doesn't worth the price. I said, 'I totally agree with you, glad that you initiated to leave, or else I will end up ordering the RMB20 mineral water'.
We sat down on the chairs for passengers after we get out from the restaurant. I joked with my friend by asking him, 'Hey, do you think 'Malaysia' embarrassed us just now or we, as Malaysians, embarrassed our country?". "You see, if our country is strong and our currency exchange rate is the other way round when we exchange for USD, let say USD3.55 can only change one Ringgit Malaysia, then, we won't think that RMB 88 for a plate of chicken rice is expensive. But then, due to we have a not-so-efficient-government that runs the country(I think this will sound better than using 'idiotic and corrupted government', you see, nowadays the government might send you to jail if you talk something bad about them, the hell they can link it to'sedition' if they really want to charge you), our Ringgit value shrinks badly, now we have to walk out from the restaurant with embarrassment. In a way, we have embarrass Malaysia, because we can't demonstrate our buying power but on the other hand, we had demonstrated the weakness of our Ringgit and our standard of living, when a few Hong Kongers still eating happily inside the restaurant and I assume they hate flight meal very much.
Malaysia is a country that is used to be ahead of Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea; on par with Hong Kong and Japan. But after forty years, there are two Malaysians complaining a RMB88 chicken rice not worth the price in ShenZhen airport. So, do you think we had embarrass the country? Or the country embarrass us? Does this reminds you of 'Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You! Ask What You Can Do For Your Country!'?:)
Hey, one thing I need to clarify, we definitely can afford the meal if we want, in order to save ourselves from dying hunger which we don't have, but then, I still think it doesn't really worth what we are paying for. Don't you agree?
2 comments:
Well, not only ShenZhen airport's restaurant is very expensive, I even been to those small airports in small cities in China where food and even a cup of coffee is extremely expensive.
To be frank, instead of finger pointing to our less efficient government, I will first ask myself. "How come I can't afford to dine inside the restaurant"
Anyway, RMB 88 is very expensive, and even in HK, u can find something at HKD 35 - 50 range at the HK airport. It is just way too expensive.
Tips: Go to the arrival hall in SZ airport, New Wing. There are McDonald over there. If you go to the Old Wing, there is a very popular food chain store too and the price is very affordable.
I think it will make things easier if the government is strong. You might be making the same amount, but then if the currency value is strong, it means a lot when you are out of the country.
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