First tour in Beijing + Shopping

Dec 17 Sun

I was scheduled to tour 3 famous spots: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace. There were only 4 us in the tour, a mag-ina from Chicago na Chinese din, and Mr Jones from Indiana (of course I don’t know his name, I just named him Jones.. okay let me complete the joke.. Indiana Jones that is :) ) The tour guide spoke in English. All 3 places were nice. In Forbidden city, it was a big palace, the structures looked very classical. The Temple of Heaven has 2 temples, one of them is for harvest, another is for generic prayers I guess (I forgot na). In Summer Palace, it was the residence of the longest reigning empress named Dragon Lady (Tsi Chi Tai Ho) Honestly, I can hardly remember Chinese history though they used to be taught way back in HS. The trip ended pretty early.

Instead of asking the van driver to drop me in the hotel, I decided to go to the famous Silk Street (shopping mall in Beijing), the tour guide happened to be going to that same direction so I just tagged along. I clarified with her like 5 times if she was sure there were taxis in that area. She told me not to worry because the area was full of taxi as foreigners frequent that place.

I arrived there but then again, it’s the same scene again like tiangges in Shanghai. All stuff were overpriced for 4 times, and you really have to haggle a lot to get a reasonable price. The items were good though, they’re all branded stuff, designer bags, shoes, clothes. Brands like LV, Prada, Chanel, etc were everywhere. I think most of them were imitation and some were overruns. I had difficulty in their style of haggling, some of the sellers were really rude. I heard them cursing some foreigners (mga puti) if they don’t end up buying. I didn’t really like this kind of aggressive and demanding sellers, so I just decided to buy some souvenier items and leave the place. I lost my gloves (one hand) in daytime kainis so I had to buy a new pair of leather gloves. I looked and looked for a seller that looks ‘hndi mapagsamantala’ hehe. Then I ended up with a male seller who looks like a student. He told me the price is 90RMB, I said 40RMB. Then he said lowest price should be 60RMB. I said no thanks. Then he said okay 50RMB. I don’t want to ‘barat’ him too much so I said okay 45RMB. Deal. I took out money and got the gloves. It was actually more like a mind game shopping in China. The sellers seem to be able to read minds and manipulate. My first pair was bought in Shanghai by a friend, at 30RMB. But I guess fair price is for locals only. Foreigners are meant to be ripped off anywhere anyway hehe.

Dinner time, peking duck is a must try in Beijing. I am not really a super big fan of Peking duck, but I do eat them in pan-to. I didn’t find any difference in the taste of a real Beijing-breed duck hehe. But it was good enough, I couldn’t finish a half duck, still had some left for breakfast the next day.