After the Summer palace we went out for dinner, which was the same kick ass food we had been eating for every meal since we had been there. After dinner the group went to a Chinese opera but I,having heard it was awful, skipped out on it and took a taxi home. Kyle went to the opera, but a few of us took a taxi back to the hotel then down to the same little store because Jack had promised the woman we had bought the beer from the day earlier that we'd "see her tomorrow." If you had been there you would have burst out laughing - I did. We didn't buy quite as much as we had the day earlier, but yet enough to feel sheepish walking into the hotel again.
I went up to my room and had a beer in a bubble bath. Given that I don't have a bath in Korea it had been a couple years since I had had one. Later, we gathered in Chad's room and sucked back a few beers until the people who had been to the opera came back. We had talked aboout checking out some of the Beijing nightlife. We continued to dirnk a beer until about 10pm then 5 of us. Kyle, myself, James, Colleen, and Claire hopped into a cab to a place called "bar street". The taxi looked kind of miffed that we had 5 people in a cab so I think he went the long way as it ended up costing double what it should have ($8 instead of $4). We walked around "bar street" which was full of foreigners. However, the bars were all sit down places, which we didn't want to go to because the girls wanted to go somewhere where they could dance. We talked to some people and eventually got into another cab to a place called The Banana. It was pretty cool, but too loud; apparantly European style. It was expensive by Chinese standards--30 Yuan ($5) cover and the same per beer, but decent compared to other countries' bars. The place was packed, especially the dance floor. I just sort of stood around trying not to bump into people or fall asleep (keep in mind I'd been walking around all day on little sleep). I was talking to a guy from Sweden when Kyle and James saw a cute Chinese girl and James said "ni-hao" (hello) to her. Oddly, her response to this was to go over and give him a hug. She actually spoke English well(a rarity so far in the trip). She fed him a few lines about being a University student at the bar alone, but then later she brought another girl over for Kyle to meet. She told Kyle that her friend didn't speak English so they'd have to communicate using body language. This all seemed a little fishy, eventually she admitted that she was employed by the bar to go around and talk to guys (and probably do whatever they'd pay for). By that point I was about ready to pass out on my feet, so I said that I was leaving. Apparantly the Chinese guys on the packed dance floor were getting a little handsy, so the girls were ready to leave too. Shortly after we all left. It took a couple taxis before one would take five of us together, but finally we got home.
The last day we had to get up early to pack our things and put them in the lobby so that the bus could load them up. Kyle and I had breakfast, but then went back up to lay down for awhile. The tour was going to the Temple of Heaven, but most people, like us, had opted out to go to "Silk Alley" in search of bargains. Now one thing I haven't really mentioned is that all the tourist places where we had gone (basically everywhere) there had been people hounding us, trying to sell us stuff. But near Silk Alley the taxi hadn't even come to a full stop and there were five people surrounding the car with armloads of crap. One woman was selling DVDs, and he had heard that, although they are poorly made knock-offs, you can still watch new movies in fairly decent quality. So we walked with her, but when she turned down a dark alley we walked away. Too much money in my pocket to be walking down an alley with four other people hounding us to buy their crap. We continued around the corner the driver had pointed to and found Silk Alley. Now this was where the fun started.
Right away we ran into a guy from our tour who was out exploring on his own after he had had an argument with his wife. He had been there for an hour already and we talked about some of the crap he had picked up. The sellers pursuing us evidently weren't allowed in Silk Alley because they stopped as soon as we turned the corner. Silk Alley is a collection of a couple hundred shops selling everything made by every desinger label you could think of. (mostly clothes and shoes shops). A lot of the stuff are probably knock-offs, but they look real. I imagine that some of the stuff must be real, but seconds when you consider how much of it is made in China.
There, the high pressure sales were still on, but they didn't leave their little kiosks so we could get the price down by simply walking away. The first shop I saw when we walked in had some nice "Gucci" and "Hugo Boss" belts. The woman quoted me a price of 270 Yuan($50) and I laughed and offered her 30. She laughed back at me but as I was walking away the price kept dropping 200, 170, 150, 100, 80, 50 then as I was getting out of earshot she yelled "Ok, 30" and I got myself a nice belt for $5. This went on for hours. We had a blast pretending to be appalled by their first offer and negotiating with them. Some of them would joke around with us and we'd have a good time while others were downright rude. Then, Kyle and I and whomever else we ran into from the tour, would play off each other, "Hey, I saw that same thing at another shop. Lets go see if they'll take this price." The going rate seemed to be about 10-15% of whatever their first offer was.
