Asia: When in Beijing, Beijieu

Saturday: Our first non class day. The scheduled activities are visiting the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. The Great Wall is world renowned, but the Summer Palace lingers in relative obscurity. I think this is a cultural lapse, because the Summer Palace is amazing. It is an enormous lake, located about 5 minutes away from our hotel. Surrounding the lake are many intricate temple-like buildings, but the real treat is in the scenery. Every vantage point offers breathtaking views. It is the unsung hero of Beijing heritage. We were scheduled for two hours. I spent five.

Probably the most interesting aspect of Beijing culture (to me), is the attitude of bargaining. Everything is bargainable. Beers? Yes. Watches? Yes. Nunchuks? Yes. Ten percent seems to be about the standard relationship of actual input price to stated price. A woman in the silk market explained: 1200 yuan was her going rate for a knockoff rolex, but her input price - the price she bought it at - was 135 yuan (a price that I'm still skeptical of). She would sell for 140 yuan after intensive bargaining and occasionally, vendors would offer a product at cost to make sure that their competitor wouldn't make the sale. I would like to discover the roots of this practice. It seems counterintuitive that competition could get so extreme that someone would sell something for the same amount it cost them just to spite someone else. A whole book could be written purely on the economics of the Silk Street.

I'm going to leave most of the vague platitudes for a later post, but practically, don't take anything at face value. There is much more going on that isn't said than in America, and I'm not sure that even years of practice would let me understand it all. Also, bargain for everything and don't sleep too much. Plus if someone is a really kind soul and would like to ship Rosetta Stone: Mandarin to me, I'll be in Shanghai, at the Radisson. When I get back to the United States, I'll buy you some drinks of Beijieu...

--Bill Bridges