Beijing!

Beijing is the kind or city I could definitely see myself going back to. Beijing is a lot more developed than Tianjin, and there seems to be a lot more people who speak English.


It's about a 2 hour bus ride to Beijing by bus and a 30 min. ride by speed train.


We got ourselves some famous (cao ya) Roasted Peking Duck. It was delicious! really fatty and oily, but really good! the other food was just (mama huhu) so so. After they were done cutting off the meat, they gave us the gizzards, which is pretty much just rest of the duck disassembled with a buter knife. That was kind of a wild card, you never knew which part of the duck you were gonna get! We made a game out of it. You would pick a piece out of the disfigured pile of bones, and after eating off the meat (or whatever it was) off the bones,  you got to guess what part of the duck's skeleton you uncovered! 

Then we went on to see a Peking Opera. They preformed "Farewell my Concubine,""The Drunken Concubine,""...,"and "....." (this blog is a work in progress)

Our Hotel was downtown Beijing and way nicer than our dorms.

PEARL MARKET


The best English was spoken at the Pearl Market. It's basically a big building filled with tons of fake copies of name brand everything. electronics, shoes, clothes, bags, purses, scarves. You name it, they have a fake copy of it. And they are not shy about letting you know they have it. Except they try to play it off like it's the real thing.




If you show any interrest at all (or get within a yard of their booth), they will shove whatever they have in your face, pull on your clothes, and tell you how famous and how great the quality of their product is.

This is where we got to practice our bargaining skills. Their favorite phrases to try and get you to buy things were something a long the lines of, "Because you are my first customer, and you're my friend, and we are like seeesters, i give you this price (types in an outrageous price on calculator). Because you are so beautiful, you need a beautiful bag! Other people give you this price (types in an even more outrageous price on calculator), but i give you this price! (types in regular outrageous price)." Our teachers told us, to avoid getting scammed we should set an outrageously low price (about 1/4 the original price they ask). Before I bought anything thought I would test the waters, so pretend to want to buy a small purse. The lady did her little routine and set her price of 400 块. I laughed and started waking away. She yelled at me to come back and to name my price, and I proceeded to laugh again and say she didn't want to know my price. But she insisted (they always do) and I typed in a whopping 50 块 on the calculator (and that was generous). Her face had a disgust look on it, followed by a "You tell me that price, I kill you!" "How about this price? (300 块 )." I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. She had a partner in crime with her who was being all sassy and just kept saying things like "Are you crazy? This a good purse! I can't believe you!" We talked back and forth for a while, and I pretended to walk away a couple times (they always firmly grab your arm to stop you from leaving and beg you to come back by lowering their price again). She kept lowering her price and I wouldn't budge. About 8 min. in I got her down to 55 块. Again, I didn't actually want the purse, I was just playing a game of how low I can get her to go. After more threats and a mix of insults and complements, it seemed like she wouldn't budge, so I started to leave thinking that was as low as I could get her. They kept saying things like "It only 5 块!" Once I finally escaped her death grip and walked away I heard her yell, "Fine! You I give it to you for 50 块!"


Victory.


I turned around and said I didn't want it anymore. So I figured that if she settled for 50 块, then there is a chance I can go even lower! I went to the next booth that had the exact same purse, to see if I can do even better. I let the lady do the same routine and after she set her price I thought I could save some time by telling her someone already offered me 50 块 for it. She seemed slightly flustered and angrily responded with "Who say dat? Who say 50 块?" then quickly changed the price to 40 块. I realized that was a quick shortcut, so I said I had another person offer me 30 块 ( i know, not so smooth). She caught on fast and said "First you say someone give you 50 块, then you say 30 块! Next you say someone give it to you for free!" I had lost my game face at this point and just started laughing at my situation. My friend (who is a bargaining disaster was originally ready to settle for 150 块 and eventually gave in at 40 块) I settled for 40 块, but I have my suspicions that I could have gotten her to go lower.


I eventually got some pearls. My laoshi (teacher) said I got them for a decent price.




TIANANMEN SQUARE...


GARDEN

We didn't have the time we wanted to go into the Forbidden City, so we went in to the Garden that was to the side of it.

TEMPLE OF HEAVEN