off to beijing
when we get back to shanghai around 5 p.m. our tour guide offers to take us on a river tour of the city to see the spectacular city skyline, but i feel the need for some alone time and shopping. i have a taxi take me to the local market downtown and shop for pearls. it's pretty fun and i make friends with the girl selling them, who shows me how to check for different qualities. she tells me to buy myself the better quality and get the lower quality for my friends, which i thought was funny.
anyway, she knotted the strands for me and let me choose the clasps, so it was another participatory shopping experience, like the time a few days ago when i admired a jewelry maker's necklace and she made me the matching bracelet right there while letting me pick out the stones!
two boys on the trip are total freaks who hate shopping (whatever), but i told them what amazing deals they could get over here and surely there must be upcoming birthday and christmas gifts to purchase for someone back home ... so they gave me a list of moms, sisters, friends and asked me to pick up some stuff for them and they'd pay me back. i love shopping assignments! it just makes me crazy to think there are people trekking all the way to china who don't like shopping so therefore they are missing out on the spectacular discounts to be had ... so i think a new perfect job for me would be as a tour group shopper! everyone would give me names, ages, characteristics of people to shop for and i'd get presents for everyone, while they are out hitting the clubs, which is exactly what they did. it was a total win-win as they got their free time and i had my shopping assignments.
i stayed out a little late after i made friends with this family who ran a shop. i was to get bill some luggage to carry home his newly-purchased goods and i negotiated hard for this samsonite wheelie ... i had to leave the shop twice and come back to get the 200 yuan price ... but only after i agreed to buy the 'omega' watch they were selling. we had such a good time bargaining and speaking each other's broken language i left the store with a bag full of stuff i had no intention of buying ... but it was still cheaper than going to a club ... and i had tons more fun.
tomorrow morning we head to the airport for beijing!
anyway, she knotted the strands for me and let me choose the clasps, so it was another participatory shopping experience, like the time a few days ago when i admired a jewelry maker's necklace and she made me the matching bracelet right there while letting me pick out the stones!
two boys on the trip are total freaks who hate shopping (whatever), but i told them what amazing deals they could get over here and surely there must be upcoming birthday and christmas gifts to purchase for someone back home ... so they gave me a list of moms, sisters, friends and asked me to pick up some stuff for them and they'd pay me back. i love shopping assignments! it just makes me crazy to think there are people trekking all the way to china who don't like shopping so therefore they are missing out on the spectacular discounts to be had ... so i think a new perfect job for me would be as a tour group shopper! everyone would give me names, ages, characteristics of people to shop for and i'd get presents for everyone, while they are out hitting the clubs, which is exactly what they did. it was a total win-win as they got their free time and i had my shopping assignments.
i stayed out a little late after i made friends with this family who ran a shop. i was to get bill some luggage to carry home his newly-purchased goods and i negotiated hard for this samsonite wheelie ... i had to leave the shop twice and come back to get the 200 yuan price ... but only after i agreed to buy the 'omega' watch they were selling. we had such a good time bargaining and speaking each other's broken language i left the store with a bag full of stuff i had no intention of buying ... but it was still cheaper than going to a club ... and i had tons more fun.
tomorrow morning we head to the airport for beijing!
posted by christine at 12:29 PM
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