While
visiting Yangshuo 阳朔 this week, we saw many beautiful sites, both natural and
manmade. We have not yet explored much
of China, but this is the prettiest place I've seen so far. Though Chinese, the feel of the town and the
arrangement of the shops among the mountains gave me a familiar feeling like
many small towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the eastern Unites States. The surrounding mountains are breathtaking
and comforting as they hug around the small town and the beautiful Li 漓江and
Yulong 遇龙河 Rivers.
Inside many shops
were the standard miscellaneous rip-offs for the crazy tourists. You know - plastic instruments, cheap shoes,
trinkets galore. But we found some good
treasures too. Like a stone xylophone
that my friend Elizabeth couldn't resist.
They were beautiful with dragons
or phoenixes carved on them and we found one with the perfect in-tune major
scale. Steven also found a hand-carved
pendant make of yak bone. My favorite
shop, however, was the chi pao store.
Not only did they have traditional chi paos, but also modern ones,
jackets, shirts - and all with Chinese flare.
After selecting my
must-haves, a nice young sales lady showed me to the storage room to help me
try them on...Between the lack of air conditioning and the straight lines of
the chi paos, I was forced to expose too much of myself accepting her
assistance! The first short chi pao I
tried was beautiful, white, with abstract butterflies in muted pastels. I loved it.
My second, Steven's choice, was a long green traditional chi pao with
brocade fabric. It was way too straight
and did not follow the curves of THIS girl!
Then, I saw it - this year's latest release - a full-length red
brocade-fabric dress with a red floor-length high collared jacket over it. In the front, under the bosom, two beautiful
Chinese frogs holding the jacket in place.
It slipped on easily and hugged my curves. Steven said aptly named it my "evil empress" dress.
Now comes the hard part. So, along with the cute pajamas for Laila, a chi pao for her to grow into, and two beautiful linen Chinese jackets, one for Jason and one for Steven, I had to reach a price I could afford. I wanted them all! "Everyone" knows that in China, I will pay a higher price just because I'm a foreigner. Everyone also knows you never pay that price and that a good negotiator should be able to do much better than the original offer. During the course of our shopping day, I had gained some new experience in negotiation, making ridiculous offers I was sure no one would take for the small trinkets that caught our eyes, but when I stuck to my guns and put things down to walk away, the vendors would say, "OK, OK" and take my price! Quite exhilarating! But this place, this would be tougher. A more upscale shop with high quality items. After the young saleswoman (who had just witnessed my barely-covered body) shared her initial offer, I almost fell out of my chair. I had an idea in my head of what I thought the total would be, but I was nowhere close! I asked the individual prices of each item and decided that my beautiful "evil empress" dress would have to go :(. On my other five items, I negotiated hard for several minutes, back and forth, up and down, and settle for half the original asking. Go me! I was ready to buy and walk, but this salesgirl REALLY wanted me to have the red "evil empress" dress too! I apologized and told her we simply weren't in the same ballpark and that I was happy with my loot. She kept saying, "Make an offer" but when I did, she would say, "Oh, please miss, please miss, that's too low." I would say, "I understand, I simply can't afford it. I'll take these items." And then she'd start again - "make an offer", etc, etc...Steven was a little frustrated at first and was afraid I would cave. He kept saying, "It's OK Mom, just buy these." I really was ready to walk, but then, we both realized she was willing to go lower and lower, so I decided to set my price and as she was going lower and lower, I simply offered the same, insisting that I was satisfied without it and would just take the other items. It was the longest, most strong-willed negotiation I've completed, and I walked away with everything I wanted for 39% of the original offer price! Even Steven gave me a high-five after we walked out with our score!
Now comes the hard part. So, along with the cute pajamas for Laila, a chi pao for her to grow into, and two beautiful linen Chinese jackets, one for Jason and one for Steven, I had to reach a price I could afford. I wanted them all! "Everyone" knows that in China, I will pay a higher price just because I'm a foreigner. Everyone also knows you never pay that price and that a good negotiator should be able to do much better than the original offer. During the course of our shopping day, I had gained some new experience in negotiation, making ridiculous offers I was sure no one would take for the small trinkets that caught our eyes, but when I stuck to my guns and put things down to walk away, the vendors would say, "OK, OK" and take my price! Quite exhilarating! But this place, this would be tougher. A more upscale shop with high quality items. After the young saleswoman (who had just witnessed my barely-covered body) shared her initial offer, I almost fell out of my chair. I had an idea in my head of what I thought the total would be, but I was nowhere close! I asked the individual prices of each item and decided that my beautiful "evil empress" dress would have to go :(. On my other five items, I negotiated hard for several minutes, back and forth, up and down, and settle for half the original asking. Go me! I was ready to buy and walk, but this salesgirl REALLY wanted me to have the red "evil empress" dress too! I apologized and told her we simply weren't in the same ballpark and that I was happy with my loot. She kept saying, "Make an offer" but when I did, she would say, "Oh, please miss, please miss, that's too low." I would say, "I understand, I simply can't afford it. I'll take these items." And then she'd start again - "make an offer", etc, etc...Steven was a little frustrated at first and was afraid I would cave. He kept saying, "It's OK Mom, just buy these." I really was ready to walk, but then, we both realized she was willing to go lower and lower, so I decided to set my price and as she was going lower and lower, I simply offered the same, insisting that I was satisfied without it and would just take the other items. It was the longest, most strong-willed negotiation I've completed, and I walked away with everything I wanted for 39% of the original offer price! Even Steven gave me a high-five after we walked out with our score!
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