China Day 5

Yes, I'm lazy and horrible about updating. Whatever. Christmas/studying has gotten in the way, so that's my excuse for now. So moving on to updating about China...



Day 5 was an experience. There's no other way to describe it. I know I keep saying that about everything we did in China, but really...this was the ultimate shopper's experience. The menfolk had to go to their first round of business visits, so the girls were left to their own devices. I had breakfast with Jerry around 7:30, and these women did not want to get their day started untill 10am. Huh??? Why wait so long people? I went back to the room after breakfast and I think it was that morning that I picked out Carrie's Santa present over Skype with Mom...gotta love technology :) I bopped downstairs to meet Dana, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Donna. We decided that today would be the day we'd try out the Pearl Market and the Silk Market. These places are not for the faint of heart. We hopped on the subway (much to Donna's dismay, I think - she wasn't a big fan of the Chinese subway system!) and made our way to the Hongqiao Pearl Market.



You walk into the Pearl Market and it immediately starts...."LADY! LADY! LADY! Want to buy a watch? Ipod? iPhone?" And those were the only things they were saying on this floor because you enter on the electronics floor. It reminded me of the casinos in Las Vegas. There was no good way to get to where you wanted to go without going through all the action. We wanted to go directly to the top floor where we'd been told they have the real pearls, but we had to snake through each floor and find the escalators (no elevators here...guess ADA isn't a big thing, or either they had them well hidden). One entire floor was designer handbags/shoes/etc. Another floor was Chinese knick-knacks. Another floor was costume jewelry. Finally we got to the top floor with the real pearls!



Dana and I attended the orientation for the trip to China with our husbands, and the program coordinator tried to warn us, but there's no amount of warning that can prepare you for the sport that is Negotiating in China. I swear it should be an Olympic sport. Basically you look around for what you might like, look at it, ask how much, and offer about 10%. We didn't think you could do that in the more upscale jewelry stores, but you could! If they actually let you walk away, you know you've gone below cost on the item. The trick is to not let them know you really want whatever it is you are negotiating about. Let's just say that I ended up with an anniversary present of a black pearl ring by the end of this shopping trip, and I paid about 25% of the original asking price :)

Next on the list was lunch - we broke down and found a pizza place and truly enjoyed our pepperoni/sausage pizza with our beers!

Next was the Silk Market. Oh. My. God. If I thought the Pearl Market was crazy, that was NOTHING compared to the Silk Market. Oddly enough there's very little silk in there (really only one floor our of about 4 or 5). This place was CRA-ZY. The aisles in between the stalls were very narrow, and all of the people working in them wanted to reach out and grab you to get your attention. Not okay to a bunch of American women who like their personal space, but I eventually got used to it. This was the place for all of the fake designer handbags, which really did look pretty darn real! We didn't last too long there, as it was pretty overwhelming and it was getting close to the time that the guys were coming back.

Jerry and I ended up back across the street for more Hot Pot :) We tried to go to another nearby restaurant, but they didn't accept credit cards and there wasn't an ATM nearby, so we went back to the known entity. Afterwards we wandered down Wanfunjing taking in all of the sites, then headed back to the hotel to rest up for another day!