June 16, 2007

Summer Palace 12, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Wow, yesterday was quite the adventure. The Summer Palace was pretty cool – there was this big
(man-made?) lake in the middle with a small island. We took this very rickety looking boat out to the island. One of the coolest things on the main part of the grounds (not on the island) was this long outdoor corridor. It was all painted and very lovely.

We had lunch and then stopped at a tea house for some tea tasting, which was quite cool. I went in on a box with some of the boys and bought a small can of jasmine tea. Then, the real adventure began – shopping at the Pearl Market (I think that was the name?) on Silk Street. I believe the whole thing is at least six floors, though we stuck to just a couple. The first nerve-wracking thing to happen was I stopped at an ATM and couldn’t remember my PIN! Later on I did remember my PIN and was able to get some money.

So the big thing about going to the market is you have to bargain – it is very overpriced for the cheap and counterfeit goods in all the stalls. So the initial asking price is outlandish, and then you have to bargain back and forth ‘til it’s settled. Jade started with me, then we found some of the boys. Probably the most ridiculous was when I bought a red trench coat – the initial asking price was 850 yuan, and somehow – I’m still not exactly sure how I pulled it off – I got it down to 135 yuan. It was quite flustering (is that a word?) and I think I started turning as red as the coat. I started walking away, they grabbed my wrist (and really latched on!) and tried to pull me back in. So we bargained some more and I kept my price around 100-120 yuan. We walked away again, and they started screeching, “Okay, okay!” So I went back, and we got it down to 135 yuan. They looked so pissed off when it was finally done. A pretty similar process happened with the things I bought after that, though the coat was definitely the most dramatic experience.

The total list of things I bought at the market:
* A cute tote bag – nice zip-top, big, good handles. Kind of like what I was trying to find before I left Cincinnati. Originally 100 yuan, got it for 80 yuan.
* The red trench. Nice belt, and even has some cute slash pockets. Originally 850 yuan, got it for 135 yuan.
* Set of vaguely tacky cartoony panda chopsticks (bamboo?). I think there were four sets (eight altogether). Originally 80 yuan, got it for 10 yuan.
*Set of four beaded coin purses (cute shapes like birds, strawberries) for something like 85 yuan – original was something like 100-120 yuan.

It was all quite entertaining. It was pretty wild and chaotic – you walk past the stalls, and everyone is like “Pretty lady, come buy t-shirt! Sexy lady, you need silk robe!” Then when you’re bargaining, you start feeling kind of guilty, because they’ll go like “Are you crazy? Are you joking? How will I make money?” – but I figure that if they were really going to lose money from your ridiculously low offer price, then they’d walk away. Although, even when you get the price you want, they get all pissy while you settle out the money.

That night we went to a street with several bars – though I saw a gazillion other tourists there. And because of the crowds and large numbers of tourists, there were several kids working as pickpockets. They were awful. I feel like I should be a generous liberal and write something about people left behind by corrupt governments. But all the rhetoric wouldn’t change how angry these kids were. They weren’t like “Ohh, please we are hungry!”, they were like “GIVE US MONEY! 100 YUAN!” They were giving the boys a real problem, but when jade told the ones bothering her to go away, they cussed her out. It’s weird, I kind of feel guilty for not feeling guilty about how much I wanted to say very nasty things to these children.

And then we got ripped off with the beer at the places we stopped at – like 400 yuan for two six-packs. Ugh. Lesson learned – avoid tourist bar areas – overpriced beer and pickpocket kids.

So today we came to Dalian. We were all thrilled to find the air so clean and blue. We are living in a building (at Dalian Jiaotong University), which is a sort of hotel/learning center for visiting students. Clean spartan rooms, meals provided, wonderful classrooms. Our teachers seem nice – a few young girls (okay, probably under 30), though I think their English is rather shaky.

Went out tonight with the group to explore our surroundings (we’re actually just outside Dalian, almost an hour’s drive). Lots of buildings being built around here (the city of Dalian has a mind-boggling number of luxury high-rise apartment complexes) so the neighborhood has a lot of construction workers. We stopped at a small general store – a giant box of bottles of beer was like 60-70 yuan – so much cheaper than where we went last night. We get stared at so much more here than in Beijing – there was a large group of construction workers outside the store we stopped in, and they were gathered around a TV watching a movie (there must have been at least twenty to forty) – they stared at us a lot. For the most part, it’s pretty polite staring, and I generally feel safe because the boys are usually close by.

So now I’m going to sleep – up early in the morning to go running!