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Bring in Mangosteen from Thailand

cloudtrapezer (756 posts) • 0

It's a brown fruit with what looks like garlic inside. Kunming has tons of them and no need to import from anywhere.

Ishmael (462 posts) • 0

Importing things that don't need to be imported (hey, I don't mean whatever you might bring in in a backpack) simply burns hydrocarbons unnecessarily.

dolphin (509 posts) • 0

No you are wrong. Hydrocarbons not an issue since it makes no difference who brings in the mangosteen.

l4dybug (89 posts) • 0

A word of caution for foreigners buying fruits in Kunming.

Some Machiavellian mangosteen vendors would purposefully mislead buyers by advertising prices using the market catty system, instead of the standard metric system.

Market catty units of measurements for mass is denoted by "jin" ().

One "jin" () comes out to 500g. So 2 = 1kg

Don't confuse "jin" with the metric "gongjin" (公斤, or kg).

So when a cardboard sign prints "10/" above the fruits. The price of that fruit is actually 10yuan for 500 grams. Or 20rmb/kg.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • +3

I have found that the vendors I use say jin, but actually mean gongjin. IE, the vendors confuse the two. Easy to check, by just repeating back using gongjin in your response. I have only ever had nods of agreement. I have not seen jin (500g) used for over 10 years.
Others may have had a different experience.

Peter99 (1246 posts) • -3
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With 90% polluted groundwater under feet, and soil so polluted worms have deserted, its psychologically convenient to be concerned about hydrocarbons. Also politically, surprise.

cloudtrapezer (756 posts) • -1

Tiger is right. In Kunming a jin means a gongjin i.e. a kilo. In most other cities around China a jin means half a kilo. The 'official' definition is half a kilo. But in Kunming when you buy a jin you get a kilo. As Tiger said, if in doubt double check the seller means a gongjin. They always do.

l4dybug (89 posts) • -1

Both tiger cloud are right, but to a certain extent.

Most vendors aren't confused. "Jin" is just part of Kunming's vegetable market idiolect. Used in lieu of "gongjin" among sellers and local residents/returning customers.

However, the operative word is "some" fruit vendors in traffic touristy areas would use "jin" as half a kilogram to lure one-time buyers. The suitcase rolling thriftless tourists making the exorbitant, one-off purchases. These jin-baits are placed at the very front for bystanders to see.

cloudtrapezer (756 posts) • -3
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On a trivial point of language 'idiolect' is a technical term used by linguists to refer to the speech habits of a single person. Jin meaning gongjin is therefore part of a dialect or subdialect not restricted to an idiolect.

l4dybug (89 posts) • -1

Okay.

i was going for the idiosyncrasy of one word in the dialect, not in context of a person.

Perhaps jargon jin,

has better ring.

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