While we have been on the cruise, there are a lot of excursions that you have to pay 100 yuan ($16) to go on. Since a lot of us didn’t bring that much money to China, we haven’t been paying to go on the excursions. Tonight, we were docked at a town that I couldn’t tell you the name of. There was an excursion here and I could not tell you what that excursion was either. Anyway, while we were waiting for dinner, a few of us decided to go to town. I didn’t actually intend on going into town, I was just walking around the boat when I saw Alejandro, Joe, Kent, and Steve. They said they were going to explore so I just tagged along.
We had to weave through a bunch of smelly docks and go through a creepy “shopping mall,” but once we got to the other side…we didn’t see much. It was a really small town. It had shops and restaurants on either side of the street, but it was pretty rundown. So we went left, we tried to buy some wine from a shopkeeper, but he wanted too much money. We then crossed the street and went the other way looking at some more shops. We were looking for a convenience store at this point and we spotted one across the street so we headed over to it.
When we were inside the convenience store we all found some food and drinks that we wanted. I found some crackers that I really wanted to buy to bring home, but they expired in March, so I decided to pass on them. I hope I can find them again. We didn’t do any bargaining in the convenience store, we just bought everything at face value.
I have never tried to bargain while in a store like this. It seems disrespectful. For the people who own these stores, this is how they get by. The prices are already cheap enough as is, it feels wrong to try and ask for something lower. Whenever we pass through small stands that people set up for tourists, or passersby, it is more fair to bargain because they try to overcharge you in the first place. But for people who have an established store and are selling to locals most of the time, it feels disrespectful to me, especially because I am a guest of their country.
After leaving the convenience store, we saw some small stands that were selling toys and drinks. Alejandro had been looking for a carved wooden rabbit along the street and at one of the stands he saw one he liked. When I asked the women how much it was she said 100 yuan. I understoond her perfectly and said 10. And she nodded her head and seemed pleased. I was really confused because going from 100 to 10 and being happy about it doesn’t seem right. I decided to pull out my phone and type 10 into my calculator because I didn’t want her to get mad if we gave her 10 and it was wrong. We wanted that rabbit!
She looked at the 10 on my phone and freaked out and said no. I guess they pronounce their numbers differently in this unknown town? They have a different dialect so ten is shi in madarin but here ten is more like si (si is 4 in Chinese) so she thought I said 40, which would be si shi…or si si in this town. So I asked Alejandro if he would be willing to pay any more money. He said 12 and she said 30. I said 12 again and she said 20. I then said 15 and she said 18. I said 15 again. She said no.
Alejandro didn’t want to pay any more than 15, so we started to walk away. We were aboout 30 feet away when she changed her mind. This can happen, because they decide they will take profit, even if it isn’t much. So we got the rabbit for 15 yuan which is about 2 dollars and 50 cents. It was a very good deal and even though the woman couldn’t understand me completely, we were successfully able to bargain!