The Silk Market

One of my favorite locations that I had the opportunity to visit in Beijing was the Silk market. Just a few subway stops away from UIBE, this market was a laowai's paradise. The massive, multi-story market was built to cater to foreign tourists looking specifically to buy Chinese knock offs of their favorite brands (We visited the Dongwuyuan market also but the selection wasn't great. The glasses market was also fairly interesting, but the silk market was my favorite.)


The Front of the Market

Usually it is hard to get me excited about shopping, so the reason I think this market was so memorable was the amount of interaction we had with the laobans (shopkeepers). In this market, nothing has a registered price so you must bargain over everything. The shopkeepers are smart: they can bargain in every language (once as I spoke with a shopkeeper, I heard her use English, Spanish, and German in succession), and they are determined to rip off every foreigner in their purchase. The rule we went with (as the teachers told us) was to cut the given price by about 1/5 in our first counter-offer. It was a fun, and somewhat theatrical experience to argue with each shopkeeper: if you pushed them far enough they all inevitably had a sick mother, rent problems, etc. Here are a few pictures of the market's hectic interior (packed with small individual stalls and hordes of tourists).

Part of the watch section


Down one of the aisles


Me with some of our favorite laobans. Despite her getting ready to hit me, they look too happy for Nick and I to have gotten a good deal. We actually decided that the measure of how disappointed/happy a seller was was also an indicator of how good our bargaining skills were. The more upset the better--if they called us names under their breath or told us not to come back to their stall again, we knew our final price was better than average. This type of shopping is addictive. I came back with 2 new pairs of shoes, 2 tshirts, a polo, and various gifts for my family members. Hopefully at least I made them all happy through my spending--right mom and dad?