The Silk Market, along Jianguomen Street near Beijing's old Embassy District, is the city's best-known buying, selling and tourist-fleecing location. Foreigners are encouraged to step inside this multi-level landmark building, where they are immediately set upon by aggressive merchants selling goods of dubious quality, and pushed into buying something they don't remotely want or need.
It is said that purchasing something at the ticketed price is relatively new for China, where negotiating for products has been the norm for thousands of years. People will bargain for everything from a pair of athletic shoes to a single cigarette. But for me, the basic fact of bargaining is this: At its core, the simple truth is someone wants to cheat you. Someone is trying to get you to pay more than what the item you want to buy is worth. Why would you ever want to deal with someone like that? Especially in a foreign country?
The biggest proponent of bargaining in Beijing is a guy who stands outside the Silk Market, whom I call DVD Man. He can target a foreigner in Beijing from a hundred yards away, twice that distance if you're obviously non-Asian like me. So, DVD Man recognizes me every time I walk along Jianguomenwai, and comes up with the same pitch, in English:
"DVDs here for you!"
"Dui bu qi. Bu yao", I reply, meaning, sorry, but I don't want any pirated DVD movies. And that should be the end of it. But noooo! If DVD Man was not persistent, he would not be a successful street merchant.
"DVDs here for you! Cheap DVDs! New DVDs!" He pulled out a handful of titles from a knapsack.
"Nicolas Cage! Bruce Willis! Will Smith!"
All of the "sorrys" and "don't wants" in China won't put this guy off. So one day, I decided to extend the game and make him try to sell me all of the DVDs he had in his bag. One...by...one.
D-MAN: "Look, you see! 'National Treasure'!"
ME: "No, sorry. What else you got?"
D: "Shrek 3!"
ME: "Watched it on the plane here. Anything else?"
D: "James Bond! New!"
ME: "Saw it. Next."
D: "Blue's Clues!"
ME: "Don't have kids."
He pulled out a copy of the Oliver Stone biopic, "W": "I got Boosh!"
ME: "Don't want any."
D: "Look! USA! 'Rambo' !"
ME: "No."
I figured he'd get fatigued or run out of selection after maybe about 10-to-15 titles. Instead, he pulled out 48...forty-eight...DVDs, one at a time, and I patiently rejected each one. DVD Man sighed, finally realizing that I was in no mood to buy a movie today.
D: "See, cheap DVDs, 5 kuai."
ME: "Sorry."
D: "1 kuai."
ME: "How about free?"
D: "Free? No, no! I make money!"
That should have been it. Bargaining is just not my thing. But just as I was about to walk away, DVD Man reached into his pocket and pulled out a knock-off wristwatch.
D: "Look! Rolex! Cheap!"
If I wasn't going to buy a DVD off the street, why would I want to buy a watch? I, again politely and patiently in both languages, said I wasn't interested. But as I walked away, I felt bad about wasting DVD Man's valuable time. I started to worry about him, and wondered how much success he really has selling to foreign dupes. Someone must be buying his stuff, or he would have given up long ago. Is it the Russians? The French? How did this nonsense get started?
FRENCH TOURIST 1: "Sac-re bleu! I have juzt arrived in Beijing, and ze first thing I want to do is buy a bunch of dirt cheap movies off ze street!"
FRENCH TOURIST 2: "Oui oui, Monseur! I have ze same fee-ling! But how many movies?"
FRENCH TOURIST 1: "As many as we can carry, of course!"
DVD MAN: "Look! I have cheap DVDs for you!"
FRENCH TOURIST 2: "Magnifique! We will buy zem all!"
FRENCH TOURIST 1: "And by ze way, we do not know what time it is in your fab-ulous country. Do you have ze cheap, piece-of-crap Rolex watch for us, too?"
RUSSIAN TOURIST: "Nyet! I have already purchased his entire supply, comrade. Go find Rolex Man. He is in Wangfujing."
It is said that purchasing something at the ticketed price is relatively new for China, where negotiating for products has been the norm for thousands of years. People will bargain for everything from a pair of athletic shoes to a single cigarette. But for me, the basic fact of bargaining is this: At its core, the simple truth is someone wants to cheat you. Someone is trying to get you to pay more than what the item you want to buy is worth. Why would you ever want to deal with someone like that? Especially in a foreign country?
The biggest proponent of bargaining in Beijing is a guy who stands outside the Silk Market, whom I call DVD Man. He can target a foreigner in Beijing from a hundred yards away, twice that distance if you're obviously non-Asian like me. So, DVD Man recognizes me every time I walk along Jianguomenwai, and comes up with the same pitch, in English:
"DVDs here for you!"
"Dui bu qi. Bu yao", I reply, meaning, sorry, but I don't want any pirated DVD movies. And that should be the end of it. But noooo! If DVD Man was not persistent, he would not be a successful street merchant.
"DVDs here for you! Cheap DVDs! New DVDs!" He pulled out a handful of titles from a knapsack.
"Nicolas Cage! Bruce Willis! Will Smith!"
All of the "sorrys" and "don't wants" in China won't put this guy off. So one day, I decided to extend the game and make him try to sell me all of the DVDs he had in his bag. One...by...one.
D-MAN: "Look, you see! 'National Treasure'!"
ME: "No, sorry. What else you got?"
D: "Shrek 3!"
ME: "Watched it on the plane here. Anything else?"
D: "James Bond! New!"
ME: "Saw it. Next."
D: "Blue's Clues!"
ME: "Don't have kids."
He pulled out a copy of the Oliver Stone biopic, "W": "I got Boosh!"
ME: "Don't want any."
D: "Look! USA! 'Rambo' !"
ME: "No."
I figured he'd get fatigued or run out of selection after maybe about 10-to-15 titles. Instead, he pulled out 48...forty-eight...DVDs, one at a time, and I patiently rejected each one. DVD Man sighed, finally realizing that I was in no mood to buy a movie today.
D: "See, cheap DVDs, 5 kuai."
ME: "Sorry."
D: "1 kuai."
ME: "How about free?"
D: "Free? No, no! I make money!"
That should have been it. Bargaining is just not my thing. But just as I was about to walk away, DVD Man reached into his pocket and pulled out a knock-off wristwatch.
D: "Look! Rolex! Cheap!"
If I wasn't going to buy a DVD off the street, why would I want to buy a watch? I, again politely and patiently in both languages, said I wasn't interested. But as I walked away, I felt bad about wasting DVD Man's valuable time. I started to worry about him, and wondered how much success he really has selling to foreign dupes. Someone must be buying his stuff, or he would have given up long ago. Is it the Russians? The French? How did this nonsense get started?
FRENCH TOURIST 1: "Sac-re bleu! I have juzt arrived in Beijing, and ze first thing I want to do is buy a bunch of dirt cheap movies off ze street!"
FRENCH TOURIST 2: "Oui oui, Monseur! I have ze same fee-ling! But how many movies?"
FRENCH TOURIST 1: "As many as we can carry, of course!"
DVD MAN: "Look! I have cheap DVDs for you!"
FRENCH TOURIST 2: "Magnifique! We will buy zem all!"
FRENCH TOURIST 1: "And by ze way, we do not know what time it is in your fab-ulous country. Do you have ze cheap, piece-of-crap Rolex watch for us, too?"
RUSSIAN TOURIST: "Nyet! I have already purchased his entire supply, comrade. Go find Rolex Man. He is in Wangfujing."
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