Learning to bargain (and getting ripped off!) & Wangfujing

Yesterday since I was feeling better and it was a beautiful day, blue skies, and great air, we decided to take a walk around our neighborhood. We are discovering that our neighborhood is pretty awesome & close to a lot of really great restaurants and other cool spots. We made our way over to Xiushui Market to do some browsing.

In China, you are supposed to haggle to get the best price. We know this. But, we aren't used to doing it. I feel cheap doing it.... LOL. Its sort of awkward... but I know if you don't, you'll get ripped off (which we did). We bought a 100% silk table runner. Its pretty, I didn't fall in love with it or anything but part of the fun here is using our Chinese, and bargaining with the shop owners in Chinese is pretty awesome, so we ended up buying this table runner, and a scarf, just for the heck of it, not because we particularly wanted them or anything. LOL! The table runner we were totally ripped off on.... she started at an amazingly high absurd price, so when we brought her down 70% we felt like we had done an amazing job of bargaining... unfortunately she does this for a living and knows we'd feel like we did a good job, so, we still overpaid by about $15... hahah! Its all part of the learning experience.

This is the table runner we were ripped off on.. its 100% silk, navy, with embroidered flowers.


And this scarf I actually haggled quite well, paid less than $5 for a 100% silk scarf. It has a really pretty pattern on it, but you can't really see it in these pictures.



And here I am with the two girls who sold me the scarf... we exchanged contact information for the future.

And how gorgeous is this painting? We love it.



After the market, we decided to take the subway to Wangfujing. When we were studying Chinese in the U.S., they always used Wangfujing Da Jie and Wangfujing Shudian (bookstore) in our dialogues, so we got a kick out of seeing it in person & sent pictures to our teachers back in the U.S. Its an extremely modern area.




The hubby "reading" a book (upside down) in the bookstore... sending it to his teachers for a laugh.


We bought a few movies in the bookstore... they were only $4 (US). I know intellectual property rights is a big deal, and that is why we bought these DVDs from a 100% legit store.


Wangfujing is the street where everyone goes to eat the weird foods... contrary to popular belief, I've only seen this sort of food sold on this street, I have yet to run into seahorse, or starfish, or scorpions in a grocery store...




We did not eat any of that interesting food, btw! After Wangfujing, we took the subway back home - stopped at a shop for some fresh flowers, made a stop at Beard Papas for some delicious fresh cream puffs.. and that was our day!

And the gorgeous view from our apartment!


Tonight we are going out with our new Chinese friend again - to the park where the Olympics were held - he says its beautiful at night, all lit up! pics to come.

Steph