Thanks Joy for sharing your experience with us.
Day 2- My life as an expat living in Beijing during the Olympics.
Day 2- My life as an expat living in Beijing during the Olympics.
While I am happy to see more foreign faces having all of these tourist here has been good at times as well as a nuisance. If one more local vendor, gives me a tourist price for something that I know cost 75% less then what they are quoting me, I am going to smack someone.
I spent my morning at my favorite market in Beijing, Pan ja yuan. I can literally spend hours looking at beads, stones and"antiques". Because of the Olympics, there were television screens throughout the market. It was kind of cool watching various events while shopping. I got so caught up in the Olympic spirit, I decided to compete in the number one sport in Beijing...
...haggling over prices with a local merchant. I have been training for this event since I first came to mainland China in 2000. I am so good at it that I have had Chinese folks get mad and say, "you just like Chinese person." Ironically my Chinese really is bad considering I have lived here for 3 years, but when it comes to shopping, I am as fluent as the next person.
And today was no exception. I saw this really cool pendant, yellow jade with two small dragons. As soon as I asked, how much, a smile went across her face. The famous, haha I am going to get as much from this foreigner as I can look. She had the nerve to quote me 400RMB(65USD). My initial response was "Ni Fang Le" which loosely translates as "Have you been smoking crack?". I think she was about to ask me the same thing when I said "30RMB", but decided to fall out laughing instead. My friend had walked off at that point, but hey I love a good fight. And it was on, out came the cell phone ( a lot of merchants like to us calculators or cellphones to tell you the price so others can't see how much you pay for things. Since I am very familiar with this, I use the gift of my loud voice and say the prices out loud, to throw or piss them off.)
The funny thing about all of this was that in true Chinese fashion people started to gather around to see this lao wai(foreigner) and zhong go ren(Chinese person) go at it. One of her friends decided to put her two cents in and tell her to charge me 500RMB and when the merchant told her to be quiet, the friend said she is a lao wai and can't understand me. Then everybody fell out laughing and told her that I could understand Chinese. Both of us had a good time and we tried are best to get the other to fold. I ended up paying 80RMB and probably could have gotten it for 50 but it was hot. So instead of winning the gold I got a silver in this event. But I won the gold with other merchants.
The funny thing about haggling over prices in Beijing is that sometimes people will chase you down or even follow you around the market until you agree on a price. Which is what another merchant did until I agreed to buy this tea set, I got it for 65RMB instead of the 500RMB he quoted me. I still can't believe that my friend and I got these vases for 150 RMB. After the vases we had to immediately, leave the market because I was on the verge of buying more stuff and I still have not figured out how I am going to get my furniture back to the US.
So my friend and I decided to go do more shopping. To deter us from spending more than we can afford, we went to the new San li tun mall. No haggling allowed and the import taxes are so high on foreign goods, I knew I was safe. We went into a jewelry shop to do some "research"-me for my jewelry business and her for engagement rings.
I guess the merchants were so excited to see foreigners and got the memo from the government to be extra nice to the tourist, that they decided to go overboard. They asked to Chinese men to move so we could look at the diamond rings, offered us water and the sales person did not hesitate to let me try on an 8 karat round diamond engagement ring set in white gold that cost 1.5 million RMB(200K). Ironically it fight my short fat finger, the smaller 1 karat in pink gold that was about 1500 USD didn't. Now if I could just find a husband...
I almost did find my future husband today. With the Olympics here, I have seen some of the most beautiful men in the past two days than I have seen in the three years that I have been living here. And they are everywhere. I met the future Mr. Dickson at the Post office this afternoon. He was this tall black guy that looked like he was either from the West Indies or an African Country. He kept checking me out, most of the non-American Black men here tend to like plump women, so I enjoy being eye candy.
We start talking,the usual where are you from what are you doing here. Yada Yada. And then he laughed and at that point I could see his teeth clearly. I don't care how fine you are, if you have disgusting graying teeth that are broken and crooked I am done. And as soon as he asked me if I was here by myself, I told him I was married and that immediately killed the conversation. I don't like to lie but I have found it is the only way to get them to leave me alone. And unlike in the US, it works every time here.
Oh well, tomorrow is another day and I will be going to my first Olympic event, fencing. Tonight, some friends and I are going to watch the US vs. China Men's Basketball game. I am looking forward to this match up.
Tune in tomorrow for my latest update.
I spent my morning at my favorite market in Beijing, Pan ja yuan. I can literally spend hours looking at beads, stones and"antiques". Because of the Olympics, there were television screens throughout the market. It was kind of cool watching various events while shopping. I got so caught up in the Olympic spirit, I decided to compete in the number one sport in Beijing...
...haggling over prices with a local merchant. I have been training for this event since I first came to mainland China in 2000. I am so good at it that I have had Chinese folks get mad and say, "you just like Chinese person." Ironically my Chinese really is bad considering I have lived here for 3 years, but when it comes to shopping, I am as fluent as the next person.
And today was no exception. I saw this really cool pendant, yellow jade with two small dragons. As soon as I asked, how much, a smile went across her face. The famous, haha I am going to get as much from this foreigner as I can look. She had the nerve to quote me 400RMB(65USD). My initial response was "Ni Fang Le" which loosely translates as "Have you been smoking crack?". I think she was about to ask me the same thing when I said "30RMB", but decided to fall out laughing instead. My friend had walked off at that point, but hey I love a good fight. And it was on, out came the cell phone ( a lot of merchants like to us calculators or cellphones to tell you the price so others can't see how much you pay for things. Since I am very familiar with this, I use the gift of my loud voice and say the prices out loud, to throw or piss them off.)
The funny thing about all of this was that in true Chinese fashion people started to gather around to see this lao wai(foreigner) and zhong go ren(Chinese person) go at it. One of her friends decided to put her two cents in and tell her to charge me 500RMB and when the merchant told her to be quiet, the friend said she is a lao wai and can't understand me. Then everybody fell out laughing and told her that I could understand Chinese. Both of us had a good time and we tried are best to get the other to fold. I ended up paying 80RMB and probably could have gotten it for 50 but it was hot. So instead of winning the gold I got a silver in this event. But I won the gold with other merchants.
The funny thing about haggling over prices in Beijing is that sometimes people will chase you down or even follow you around the market until you agree on a price. Which is what another merchant did until I agreed to buy this tea set, I got it for 65RMB instead of the 500RMB he quoted me. I still can't believe that my friend and I got these vases for 150 RMB. After the vases we had to immediately, leave the market because I was on the verge of buying more stuff and I still have not figured out how I am going to get my furniture back to the US.
So my friend and I decided to go do more shopping. To deter us from spending more than we can afford, we went to the new San li tun mall. No haggling allowed and the import taxes are so high on foreign goods, I knew I was safe. We went into a jewelry shop to do some "research"-me for my jewelry business and her for engagement rings.
I guess the merchants were so excited to see foreigners and got the memo from the government to be extra nice to the tourist, that they decided to go overboard. They asked to Chinese men to move so we could look at the diamond rings, offered us water and the sales person did not hesitate to let me try on an 8 karat round diamond engagement ring set in white gold that cost 1.5 million RMB(200K). Ironically it fight my short fat finger, the smaller 1 karat in pink gold that was about 1500 USD didn't. Now if I could just find a husband...
I almost did find my future husband today. With the Olympics here, I have seen some of the most beautiful men in the past two days than I have seen in the three years that I have been living here. And they are everywhere. I met the future Mr. Dickson at the Post office this afternoon. He was this tall black guy that looked like he was either from the West Indies or an African Country. He kept checking me out, most of the non-American Black men here tend to like plump women, so I enjoy being eye candy.
We start talking,the usual where are you from what are you doing here. Yada Yada. And then he laughed and at that point I could see his teeth clearly. I don't care how fine you are, if you have disgusting graying teeth that are broken and crooked I am done. And as soon as he asked me if I was here by myself, I told him I was married and that immediately killed the conversation. I don't like to lie but I have found it is the only way to get them to leave me alone. And unlike in the US, it works every time here.
Oh well, tomorrow is another day and I will be going to my first Olympic event, fencing. Tonight, some friends and I are going to watch the US vs. China Men's Basketball game. I am looking forward to this match up.
Tune in tomorrow for my latest update.
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