First, please look at this sentence:

> 私は日本へ行く前に、中国のお土産を買った。

Its English translation is:

> Before I will go to Japan, I bought some Chinese local goods.

which is very weird.

It is said that Japanese tense has relative tense which does not exist in
English.

Can you explain that for me?
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question
grammar tense
I am confused by the tense in this sentence 「私は日本へ行く前に、中国のお土産を買った」
As mentioned by @YOU, there is nothing wrong with the translation

> Before **going** to Japan, I bought some Chinese souvenirs.

Tenses in Japanese are relative to the tense of the verb of the main clause.
If the main action is in the past, then past tenses in the relative clauses
imply that those actions took place at a time earlier than that of the main
clause.

In this case, the main tense is a past tense and the tense of the relative
clause is non-past, which implies that this action has taken/will take place
at a time later than that of the main clause.
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answer
> 私は日本へ行く前に、中国のお土産を買った。  
>  Before I will go to Japan, I bought some Chinese local goods.

The example sentence might be better translated this way:

  * "Before **going** to Japan, I bought some Chinese souvenirs." 

OP - "It is said that Japanese tense has relative tense which does not exist
in English."

Perhaps what is meant by "relative tense" is that the verbs in the two clauses
_do often need_ to agree in tense in English, but they _don't need_ to be in
the same form for Japanese, in fact that would be incorrect for this sentence.

However, the primary difference between 行く and 行った in Japanese is not a
difference of "tense"（時制）, it is a difference of "aspect"（相）. Aspect is
_affected_ by tense, but they are not always equivalent.

In other words,

  * **行く** describes an **_incomplete action_** (which may take place in the past, present, future or even habitually), but... 
  * **行った** describes a **_completed action_** (which may take place in the past, present or future)

If you look at the Japanese example sentence again with this viewpoint it
should make more sense.

> 私は日本へ **行く前に** 、中国の **お土産を買った** 。

  * **行く前に** - "before going" (not complete because 行く is describing a point "before" the action of "going" takes place) 
  * **お土産を買った** - "bought souvenirs" (complete because the speaker has already completed the action of buying)

These articles may be a good reference:

  * [http://www.ravco.jp/cat/view.php?cat_id=5173&PHPSESSID=803go89rdjn9hbqk4nn8qn3uc6](http://www.ravco.jp/cat/view.php?cat_id=5173&PHPSESSID=803go89rdjn9hbqk4nn8qn3uc6)

  * <http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/bitstream/10108/24091/1/acs073001.pdf>..  
(page 11, Section 3.2,「日本語の相」)

  * <http://www.tomojuku.com/blog/aspect/>
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answer