I'm back from my brief visit to Beijing, China, home of great wonders such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City, quality knock offs, and millions of 'let's make a deal' hawkers. I'm not sure which fascinated me more.
I'll start with the hawkers. It's funnier.
There are many tour groups walking around these places in Beijing. Mostly Americans and Russians. We kind of stick out. The hawkers are everywhere. They sell scarves (8 for 100 rmb! no no, okay 9 for 100!), cheap souvenirs, knock off Rolex's, Gucci purses. They find you, they follow you, they pull on you. Emotions range from annoyance to humor to anger. (Male American soldiers really don't like to be touched by strangers.) I found it fairly easy to ignore them, some did not. It's actually funny when it's not you they're stalking. But you must show no weakness!! Otherwise they never leave; they will follow you to the bus. On the third day some of the members of my tour group started taunting them. They'd wave from the bus when we knew we weren't getting off (they flock to tour buses), they'd offer ridiculously low amounts for the goods just to see how long they'd follow and bargain (they'd always go right up to the bus). I bought a couple of things from the hawkers, one of them started to follow me & accost me for more money until a man in our group walked over and he left me alone then.
We also shopped at the Silk Street Market, which is a five story building packed with little booths full of knock-offs of any brand you can think of. You could go in here and walk out with an entire 'designer' wardrobe for about $500 if you're smart.
You have to bargain for your purchase, you can't get attached to something, you can't let them know you really want it. They start exceptionally high, you start exceptionally low. Except I would start with what l would pay, it's this or nothing. Browsing not allowed. You have to know what you want. You walk down the little aisle to choruses of "Hey lady, wanna buy _____?" Don't let them catch you looking! No weakness! So at one booth I did buy some 'Abercrombie' sweaters, and I must say they are very good quality knock-offs. So she starts the bidding at 1375 rmb, about $200. (I only had USD and of course they will take it.) So I said no, $40 ( I only wanted to offer $30 but I only had twenties, I should have picked out another shirt!). So we go back and forth and finally I start to leave and she says okay, okay. And I have my sweaters. It's pretty much the same everywhere. And they are some serious drama queens! For instance, I saw a jacket I was considering. I tried it on it was too big. So I said no, and she said I'll make you good deal and I still said no it doesn't fit and she was acting like she was going to cry. Many of them did things like this. Also, all deals are 'secret'; "for you I will sell cheap, but shh, secret price". I always wanted to laugh.
I'm not sure which I prefer; the negotiating system or the waiting for something to go on sale. On the one hand, as an American I really do enjoy my personal space, but on the other it's nice to walk away with your purchase not grumbling about how things are so overpriced these days. It was definitely an exciting experience.
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