The author plans to replace their old glasses due to poor anti-smudge capability and scratches. Previously, they bought glasses online with Zeiss blue-light lenses and a Sloar pure titanium frame for around 750 yuan. They heard that Danyang offers affordable glasses with the benefit of trying them on in-store. The trip costs about 160 yuan round-trip from Shanghai. The author considered photochromic lenses for outdoor use but eventually chose basic lenses and a titanium alloy frame for around 300 yuan. For daily use, they opted for Essilor lenses, known for durability and quality similar to Zeiss but at half the price. The total cost, including a titanium frame, was reduced to 800 yuan. Their parents needed reading glasses, which they purchased with Kemi lenses and titanium frames for 455 yuan. The in-store eye exam focused more on optical aspects than the hospital's pathological tests. The author found that frames are often pricier than lenses in Danyang.
Danyang
Intro
My previous glasses had gotten really bad at resisting smudges — any slight touch would mess up the view. On top of that, a few fine scratches had appeared because I hadn't taken good care of them, so I decided to get a new pair.
The previous pair was ordered on 1688. I had my eyes tested at a hospital and picked Zeiss blue-light-blocking lenses and a pure titanium frame from 施洛华 online. The total came to around 750 yuan, as I recall.
At the time, I thought that was already maxed-out value for money. Later I heard that getting glasses in Danyang is really cheap too, and since it's a physical store where you can try frames on, the experience should only be better.
A round trip from Shanghai to Danyang costs around 160 yuan, with each leg taking about an hour and a half. The eyewear market is right outside the high-speed rail station, which is super convenient, so I decided to take the opportunity to give it a try.
Choosing the Lenses
Photochromic Lenses
Ever since I first heard about photochromic lenses, I'd been really keen on them. The sun's glare often got unbearable, and after learning that photochromic lenses don't harm your eyes — they actually protect them, I decided to get a pair.
Out of habit, I first looked at Zeiss's photochromic lenses. They're definitely good products, but the price was just way too high, so I gave up on that idea. Looking around at other brands, I found that the domestic brand Quanzhen Optical specializes in photochromic lenses — in color-changing performance, they're every bit as good as, if not better than, the international first-tier brands. Online, I also learned that custom cbx 1.6 lenses cost only 390 yuan, which really tempted me — one store in Danyang even quoted 350 yuan outright.
But in the end, I didn't go for a really great photochromic pair. Photochromic lenses develop a noticeable base tint over time. It might not be obvious when you're looking through them, but to others it looks like dark circles under the eyes. So they're not suitable for long wear — only for outdoor use.
In the end, I picked a pair of Quanzhen's most basic substrate-tinted photochromic lenses at around 140 yuan, paired with a titanium alloy frame at 158 yuan — nearly 300 yuan in total. The frame cost more than the lenses, but I think it looks great.
Everyday Lenses
My original plan was to get a nice photochromic pair and a casual everyday pair that was just good enough.
But the shop assistant said ordinary domestic lenses still lag behind Zeiss — Zeiss remains the ceiling — while Essilor's optical quality comes close to Zeiss's — more durable than Zeiss, and only half the price. So I turned my attention to Essilor and, based on my needs, picked the Crizal Rock (膜岩) lenses as the best value.
As for the price: the list price was 1,080 yuan. Other stores could do it for 25% of the list price, but this one would only go to 30%. However, the frame won me over — a pure titanium frame at 258 yuan, seemingly the same price as what I paid online the first time — so I ended up getting them here anyway (in fact, together with the photochromic lenses, the final bill was 840 yuan, which they rounded straight down to 800 yuan, so the price worked out about the same).
Reading Glasses for My Parents
Both of my parents have presbyopia. Distance vision is fine, but seeing things up close — like using a computer or phone — is quite a struggle. Since the use case is pretty simple and they wouldn't be used much, I ended up going with Kemi U2 and U6 lenses with a refractive index of 1.6, priced at 100 yuan and 120 yuan, respectively. I paired them with a titanium alloy frame (158 yuan) and a pure titanium frame (98 yuan, on promotion), and got the whole lot for 455 yuan.
Outro
The on-site refraction experience was indeed very different from the hospital eye exam. At the hospital, refraction is run like an assembly line and focuses more on pathological testing; at the glasses store, it focuses more on the optical side — tests related to making glasses.
What pleasantly surprised me was that, years later, my prescription had stayed exactly the same as before, and the glasses I got were made to the exact same prescription.
Another takeaway from getting glasses in Danyang is that frames cost more than lenses. There really are plenty of great-value lens options, like Kemi, but if you want a genuine pure titanium frame, it's basically impossible to get one under 200 yuan (merchants may pass off non-pure-titanium as pure titanium).
I'd seen people online get six pairs of glasses for 1,000 yuan, or a pair of Kemi U6 for 150 yuan. Those prices are indeed achievable — as long as you can tolerate the whole series of problems that come with cheap frames.
So, is it worth coming to Danyang for glasses? Probably the pricier the lenses, the more worthwhile it is. Shanghai eyewear stores give at best 20% off on Zeiss, but Danyang can do 75% off — that more than covers the high-speed rail fare and other travel costs.