why is it so difficult to get washing done in china these days ? what happened to the chinese laundry? i have many problems trying to get my clothers washed here whilst travelling either there is no laundry service anywhere or its overpriced like 10 yuan for a t-shirt ?and in the case of zhaoxing the hotel staff seems to think i was weird that i wanted my clothes washed. so of course i do them myself but drying times can be frustrating like jeans as im on the move all the time and difficult in some hotels to find somewhere to dry it
1
astroboy
the chinese laundry was an overseas business. there's no natural tendency for Chinese to wash clothes for profit - but it was only one of the few businesses that Chinese could open in California during the Gold Rush.
But thanks for being vaguely insulting.
2
helgromite
Synthetic fabrics are much better for traveling as they hang dry three times faster than cottons. My parents once owned a laundry in the US. It is not a job one would do if one had other choices.
3
ellyse
In colonial Singapore, laundry was traditionally done by Indian "dhobies". That's the origin of the place name "Dhoby Ghaut" in downtown Singapore. It used to be where the Indian "dhobies" laid out the washing to dry.
Cheers!
4
telephoto
OK, unrelated but on cable TV recently there was a doco explaining why there are so many Chinese laundries in San Francisco.
Chinese immigrants were prohibited from doing a lot of jobs (and owning land or becoming US citizens for that matter). Laundries were one of the few jobs they were allowed to do.
5
gonezen
Yes, it's always struck me as ususual that laundry is so expensive in China, given that everything else outside a four or five star hotel is relatively cheap. Even in a three star hotel the prices are very high. Costs as much as a beer to get a t-shirt done. Why is that I wonder?
8
anonymous
I just asked my staff which one of them wanted an extra 100 per month, and I've had the cleanest clothes ever since.
9
zhoucamel
I always get laundry done every day when I stay at hotels in China, just to get the reciepts for my T&E report. I only have to collect reciepts ( amount doesn't matter) in order to make it look like I'm actually spanding my per diem. I have always had great service, although in some hotels I could actually go out and buy new shirts for what it costs to launder them.
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