Silky Fun!

It was a beautiful day in Beijing for the first time since we got here.
The weather has been dismal until this point. Grey with a bit of rain (but kind of warm). But yesterday the sun shon with a vengance!
... unfortunately today was the day for us to stay in and plan what our next move was going to be...

We went to a restuarant for breakfast (the 365). It's also a hostel, but it's a totally cool restaurant where a lot of travelers eat breakfast (as the Chinese have a little different breakfast than we are accustomed to, or ever hope to be accustomed to). We had some good ol' fashioned eggs, toast, and coffee and talked about how long we want to be in Beijing. And oh my gosh, this Chinese guy said to me: "You have nice smile. Like girls in the magazines." It was the cutest compliment ever.
ahem... anyway...

We decided on booking another night in Beijing to see an Acrobatics show and go to the Silk Market.
We got a train booked for the following night to Xi'an. An over night 11 hour train ride in a hard seat... that will most likely be a loooong night.

By 12:00 all our plans were in order and we were out the door, walking around looking for some steamed pork buns for lunch. We went to a place and thought we ordered them when suddenly they came out with two huge containers of pork dumplings and told us it was one portion.

uh... ni...hao...?

We payed for it and ate one container full (they were delicious, but not what we wanted!) and gave the other container to a couple in a hostel near ours.

Next destination? The silk market.

A guy from the 365 said that there was no way were going to get good prices there because the vendors totally rip foreigners off...
and we knew we may as well have 'rip us off' tattooed on our foreheads. Two sparkley eyed white people with backpacks on in the midst of Beijing chaos.

I was determined to get some smokin' deals, though. I had my bargain face on. (Thanks for teaching me that skill, mom). Let me tell you, bartering is EXHAUSTING and not as easy as I thought.

First off, let me tell you about what is sold at the Silk Market. It is gigantic. It's 6 stories high and each floor has a theme.
Floor 1: clothes
Floor 2: purses purses and, well, more purses
Floor 3: Toys and baby stuff
Floor 4: Silk
Floor 5: Jewlery and tuns of it
Floor 6: Arts and crafts

somewhere in there is lots of electronics and watches, too.

(I'm not 100% sure I have the order exactly right, but you get the picture)

What kind of clothes, purses, toys, jewlery, etc?

Everything is knock off. But Beijing is the KING of knock off's that look totally authentic. Who cares if it's not? It looks like Gucci, smells like Chanel, keeps you dry like Gortex (okay, that one might not be true), but you know what I'm sayin. You can't tell the difference that this stuff is fake. (unless you're buying electronics.... pretty sure the difference would become evident after a week or so...)

We walked for a few minutes, and then... I saw it. My beloved Abercrombie and Fitch! It was so real, so beautiful...
so....
expensive!!!

Stuart had heard that you should try to barter them down at the Silk Market for about 30% of the inital price presented.
I saw an adorable pink abercrombie shirt.
"how much?"
265- she punched into a calculator.
"too expensive!" I said.
"For you, shhh, only for you, special deal. 200."
(this is yuan by the way, so that would be about 30 bucks)
I laughed in her face.
"No way!" I said, feeling powerful, "20!"
"You insult me!" She said.
"It's just a t-shirt!" I said.
After lots and lots of back and forth (it was kind of thrilling!) I ended up walking away with the beautiful pink abercrombie for
...
40 yuan! (5.85 CDN)

VICTORY!

... But I was exhausted.

After hours of walking and walking and walking and being grabbed at at yelled at, I turned to a girl who grabbed me and said:
"Don't touch me!!!"
expecting her to say sorry, or nothing at all, her response caught me off guard (and was hilarious!)
"But I like to touch you!"
hahahaha

I finally yelled out "WE HAVE NO MONEY!!!"
(which was true, we had to go to an ATM)

You have to understand, this market was absolutely insane. You have never been talked to and touched by so many freaking people in your whole life.

After Stu and I stood forever at the fake electronics place looking at iTouches (we thought it might be sweet to have even a crappy one for those long train rides we were bound to continue enduring for the next 3 and a half months)... I got my second wind.
(ps, we didn't end up buying one. Stuart is not much of a barterer. All he says is "I honestly wouldn't pay more than 200 for that" hahaha)

We went to this fake Nike store that had some cute short sleeved zip-ups. The guy that was in there was SO MEAN. He didn't even talk to me. I tried to get him to sell me 2 for 120 and he got SO MAD! He pretty much made us leave.

I went to another Nike place and after LOTS AND LOTS of bartering, got the girl to agree to give me the exact same stuff for 2 for 125. I was so happy! ...
but then, after all that, she didn't have my sizes and we left empty handed!

But then, just around the bend, what's that I see??
ANOTHER ABERCROMBIE STORE!!

The girl in there was totally adorable, but trying so hard to rip me off.
"I give to you for 200, is very cheaper!"
"Ya, right! I got another one, exactly the same from a lady over there for 40! Give me a better deal!"
"40? IMPOSSIBLE!"
"No! Not impossible! True! 40!"
"I'll sell to you for 80, final offer. No cheaper. Any cheaper, I can't afford."
"Forget it! I'm not paying 80!"
"You are very beautiful. This shirt look very beautiful, the colour for you." (Hugs me)
(Stuart and I laugh)
"Thank you, you're very nice, but there's no way I'm paying 80!"
"Name your price."
(so I said a way low price, obviously one that was too low so we could do some negotiating)
"20."
She laughs. "You crazy! You crazy!!!"
"Okay, what if I buy four, you give me a deal."
"No no no, okay, 60 each."
"No way. Stu, let's go." (She blocks me in)
"You just pick the ones you want, then we'll talk. Just pick, just pick. No talk about price."
So I picked out 4 beautiful shirts and she started to pack them up.
"I'll give you 30 for each of them."
"No way, not possible. No, not possible! Ok ok, 40 each, 4 shirts, final."
"No, 35. I will only pay 35 each."
"I can not."
(Stuart and I get out 140 yuan and hand it to her)
She counts it.
Reluctently she hands me the bag.
We shake hands and I laugh and her friend says "You tough lady. You mean lady!" (but she's smiling)
4 more abercrombies for 20 bucks!

My last purchase was 2 books of hello kitty stickers for my piano students. (Sooo cute!)

We decided that it was time to leave. Our heads were spinning and we were down right exhausted!

We walked down a street and saw a guy making crepes with egg, green onion, some unidentified brown paste, and a crispy thing in the middle. We thought it looked pretty awesome and was going for 3 yuan so we decided to get one. Stu loved it. Me, maybe not so much.

I went in a squat toilet stall and peed ALL OVER the floor... and a bit on my pants, pretty much none of it in the actual toilet. It was the most embarrassing and disgusting moment of my life I'm pretty sure.

There was a Subway (not like an underground, like a restaurant) right by the Silk Market (because a lot of tourists go there) so we grabbed some foot longs for dinner and headed to the Chanyang theatre for the acrobatics show.

In front of the entrance there was a lady in pj's
*sidenote: lots of Chinese people like to walk around in their pj's all the time. I got a picture of a lady in high heels and pj's.
Ultra classy!*
Anyway, this lady in her pj's had her little son with her (in his slitted pants that I mentioned in yesterdays blog) and lots of people were taking pictures of him. It was hilarious! Of course, I got a money shot.

The acrobatics were totally cool. Definitely worth the 34 bucks we payed to go see it. Where else can you see 10 people on a bicycle? It was totally awesome, and by going on our own instead of through the hostel we saved 20 bucks!

All in all, it was 100% a great day!

Today we're heading for the zoo and we'll see the pandas! Later on, onto Dongsi Road for some famous Peking Duck!

P.S. So far 2 Chinese people have told me that I look half Chinese. hahaha.