Life's Little Pleasures

"No, I no like"
posted on Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 10:48 PM | 0 cmnt/s

Ok. I'm already anticipating scolding for today's activities for some people. Basically my day consisted of:

1. Wake up/ get ready
2. Have breakfast at the cafe
3. Book Forbidden City tour for Tuesday
4. Go to the Pearl Market
5. Shop
6. Return home
7. Have dinner

Some simple math for you all. We left for the Pearl Market around 10am. We arrived back at the villas at around 6pm.

How long is that???

Moving on, I obviously did do a hell of a lot of shopping today. And boy was that an adventure in itself. I don't have any experience with the art of haggling, but after today I can call myself semi-pro. And gosh you need it in a place like that. It was CRAZY!!! The shop assistant were mental. The shopping center (Pearl Market) was mental. Everything was mental! It does take some getting used to, the constant "Lady, you have a look in my shop", "Lady, you like this handbag, it real leather" and "Lady, I give you good, honest price." Then you start to feel like a record played with the constant responses of "No, I'm just looking", "no, I no like so much", and "cost too much, I want to pay ¥(insert price that is 1/4 of what they are suggesting)"

All I can really say is that it was a crazy day, of which I managed to come away a happy girl. For those interested, I bought:

1x sterling silver double bracelet with a real pearl (AU$50) -- on this point, we spent literally 2+ hours at a store called LingLing of the 3rd floor of the markets. I would certainly recommend this place to anyone traveling to Beijing who is looking for well prices, genuine pearls. They were so friendly and spoke good English.

3x handbags (prices around AU$20 with haggling)

2x clutches (AU$10 each)

8x scarves (around AU$3.50 each)

3x fake M.A.C. Eyeshadow pallets (¥10 each)

1x fake M.A.C. Blush (¥15)

5x Nail polish (¥10)

Not a bad day if shopping if I do say so myself, although not nearly at my full capacity. But don't worry, the next 2 days will have little to no shopping as we take in the tourist destinations instead.

Tomorrow we're off to the Great Wall of China (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I'm so so so so so so so so excited :D We've been warned that there is a lot of climbing involved, and it can be very steep and rough, but I'm looking forward to the adventure.

Let you all know how it goes tomorrow.


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