Beijing was very interesting. Things were quite cheap: 32 oz beers for 67 cents, 45 minutes taxi rides for $11, taking the subway for 30 cents, lunch with drinks for $3, decent buffet for $9, etc.
Summer Palace was beautiful. And the Wall was spectacular!!! And the whole time, it was spectacularly hot and humid.
At the conference at the beach, I found it very interesting that a lot of the Chinese people at the conference had NEVER been to the beach before, and a lot of them hadn't even been swimming before and/or couldn't swim.
The food was good. REALLY oily, and salty. And lots of meat, but the meat was harder to eat because there were usually bones and tendons, etc.
I bought a fake rolex for $20. It looks nice, but we'll see if it works in a week.
$20 for a fake Rolex! I think you overpaid!
ReplyDeleteLet's go back to the Summer Palace sometime in May (when we were there the lake was frozen and so were our faces) and spend a week exploring.
M
I agree that I probably overpaid. The problem was I am so used to the absurdly high Danish prices, plus I don't really know the "market price" for fake Rolex's, plus you had to bargain your way to lower places. And that's how those places make tons and tons of money off of westerners.
ReplyDeleteI think I got decent at negotiating prices, but it was hard and stressful. These were the pushiest sales-women I've ever seen. Just walking past booths, women would literally GRAB my arm and not let go, asking if I want to buy something and saying things along the lines of "special price! Cheaper for you!"
I am totally NOT saying you shouldn't have bought it! That whole extreme bargaining scene is really something, and it's good to practice on something like a fake Rolex. In India I never had a clue whether I was overpaying by 1000% or whether it was a good price (for an American). They are amazing at figuring out their customer. I had a guy in Bodh Gaya show up the next day in a completely different place to sell me bodhi leaves for half as many rupees as the day before. So I bought them; I mean, he figured out where I was going to be the next day!
ReplyDeleteYes, I bet they are amazing at figuring out their customers. I generally assumed that when I walked into a shop that didn't have explicitly advertised prices, I was paying double (or more) simply because I'm white. But it's still cheap for me (for instance if a beer is 4 yuen instead of 2, which is 67 cents instead of 33 cents), and that's why they can get away with it.
ReplyDelete