Example, they'll ask us if we want to buy, say, a silk pashmina (first off, does it look like I would ever need a pashmina?) and after we say no, they'll follow us.
We have learned to say, "Teen Boot Dome." No, that's not my sucky ping ying rearing its ugly head again. It's us pretending that we don't understand them and that the only three words of Chinese that we DO know, are spoken with a horrible American accent. They back off pretty quick, but not before calling us "stupid foreigners" (I think one old lady might of even called me an "alien.)
There is also so much construction going on here. Right next to this
is this (it's literally the next street over)
It feels like the entire city is "building" up to some sort of singular ginormous event...oh wait
that's right, the 2008 Olympic Games are coming! Don't even get me started on the number of Olympic hats, t-shirts, undies, condoms, and other trinkets that I've been attacked with, and yes, i said condoms. They come in packs of 5 and in different colors.
I made that last part up, but now i feel weird for posting it because both my mom and my aunt read this blog. Awkward!
Anyway....here we are on the outside of the Forbidden City. We were "forbidden" to go in due to it being 4:10 and ticket sales closing at 4. Sorry mom!
It's a shame that a city with such great culture has become such a tourist attraction. I would have loved to climb the great wall in peace and enjoyed the sights rather than it have been a "Teen Boot Dome" recital every 10 seconds.
On a brighter note, we have figured out the secrets to bargaining. Every negotiation starts with $10. You don't look the other person in the eye, you don't ask if they will go down in price. You just say, "10 dollars!" Before she can even get her next sentence out, you have to NOT SHOW FEAR OR WEAKNESS and scream even louder, "10 dollars!!!!" Of course if the item is less than $10, this technique doesn't work so well.
Anyway, I'll let Woods and Ctown give you their spiel (is that how you even spell it?) on Beijing. They are currently out shopping, and if I listen really carefully, I can hear Woody and Cynthia yelling in unison, "10 dollars!!!!"
Next up? I guess we are taking requests for blog topics now. So thanks to DZ, you guys will get a Team Vachina "TOP TEN THINGS that are MANDATORY when traveling to China." Also, you will be getting the last installment of our MV series shot in multiple secret locations. And then, tomorrow morning we are off to Shanghai. Wan an.
5 comments:
YAYYYY! cant wait cant wait!!!!!!
i want to see a list of things that you've fought over. so you can rehash them in public and we can all feel like we were there.
Here's the advice I got regarding the aggressive street hawkers and also for for beggars. Make zero eye contact, and speak not a word. Don't even say no thank you or sorry no change dude. Pretend you don't even see them. Feels kinda harsh but that's what I was told to do in Yancheng when an 100 year old man and his 101 year old GF shook there change cups in front of us. In addition it's appears to be perfectly acceptable to yell violently what can be nothing less than the equivalent of "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME YOU BROKE ASS FUCKING PIECE OF TRASH!". I didn't put this to practice, but Mr. Qi sure did.
If you are taking requests I would be interested to see more of your accomodations and since I am a parent any kid stuff like playgrounds and schools. Yes I know Cynthia's video was in a playground but I would be interested to see more. What would life be like for a kid growing up there?
Louise
I was in Beijing almost three weeks ago. My tactic for the non-stop hawkers was saying stuff like "even if it's free, I still don't want it," and "even if it's a present, I still don't want it" (shi\ mian~ fai\ de\ wo~ ye~ bu/ yiao\, and song\ gai/ wo~, wo~ ye~ bu/ yiao\). That seemed to work pretty well.
The "kung fu of ignoring" doesn't always work. We tried that with an old dude in Shanghai and he followed us for three or four full blocks (over five minutes of walking). Taking turns tugging on different people's sleaves, shaking his change cup, and speaking some incomprehensible dialect of which nothing could be understood besides qian/ (money).
-Gabe (Woody's cousin)
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