Bargaining at the Market and a Long Taxi Ride

June 23, 2008- Monday

There is something to be said about the pollution levels in this city. Beijing is huge, 13 million people, and there is so much pollution as a result. Most days, we do not see the sun because there is too much pollution filling the air. On a real humid day, walking outside makes one feel like a layer of grunge is resting on them. There are often odd smells coming from buildings. We think this is either trash or food, not pollution, but it just adds to the effect. Jess, Ashley, and I have been trying to exercise, even just for a little while, in the mornings. We noticed on Sunday that our chests were starting to hurt and we felt short of breath while doing just normal breathing. We thought that it may be from the heavy breathing we do while jogging- sucking in that dirty air, but we asked the rest of the group and they are experiencing the same thing without the running. We did go for a bus ride that day, where we all rode in the top part of a double-decker bus with all the windows open. I do not know if the air moving quickly through that bus contributed to the breathing issues we were feeling, but it definitely could be. I look forward to going into the countryside in a couple of weeks when we head to Inner Mongolia, a province of its own, but still part of China. Someone equated it to what Puerto Rico is to us.

Our only class for the day was with Mrs. Mao and she taught us about the historical great man, Chairman Mao and what he did for China when on October 1, 1949 when he declared the People’s Republic of China. She also explained to us a reform that occurred for farmers in 1978. From 1958 until 1976 the land was owned by the People’s Commune, a union that the farmers worked for. They got the same pay no matter how hard they worked. Many read the newspaper all day and didn’t care about the production. Since the production was so minimal, the union could only afford to pay the people a small wage. In 78’ the land was divided for rent amount the farmer’s and it is owned by the state. Farmers are only allowed to have a certain amount and they are all equal. The size depends on the number determined by the state. Of course, since they do not own the land, the cannot sell it to others, but they are able to sell whatever they produce off the land. For this reason, they have more interest in production efficiency and earning as much money as possible. They are far better off than they were before, working for the union.

She also explained how young farmer’s do not work in the countryside anymore, they come to the city to find construction work. She also explained that city kids are required by their school to go to the farm for 1 week and see what it is like to work on the farm. She mentioned that they have agro tourism here too. People can go and pick vegetables and fruits from a farm and it is fun for them.

After our three hour class with Mrs. Mao was over, some of us headed to the restaurant in the hotel that we call the Blackwell to eat. It is one of the three places where we can use our meal plan so we wanted to try to use some of it. We ordered sweet and sour pork to share, snow peas, a potato and sweet potato dish we had had before, and sweet rice. The sweet rice was way too sweet. It tasted and looked like it had a thick layer of sticky liquid sugar on top of white rice.

We had the rest of the afternoon off so we decided to take advantage of our time. One thing Beijing is famous for is the Silk Market. It is a place where you can buy all kids of inexpensive (fake) designer purses, silk, and other souvenirs. We wanted to go there. We asked DongFang to write down in Chinese the silk market and mark it on our maps so that we could show the taxi driver. Finally, after everyone decided if they were going and how many cars we would need to take, we headed downstairs to split up. A taxi came, and in the pouring down rain, Mark, Ashe, Jess, and I climbed in. I showed the taxi driver the slip of paper and the map, and without either of us saying anything since we couldn’t speak each other’s languages, we were off. We rode for about forty minutes or longer until he dropped us off. Our plan was to meet up with the rest of the group at the entrance at a designated time. Well, that didn’t work out. We walked around the building that he dropped us off at and all of the above ground floors had clothes, fur coats, and shoes in very small rooms with curtains as doors that you had to open to see what was inside. It was extremely odd. We walked into one shoe shop and tried to tell the guy that we wanted the other shoe since only one was on display and we think he told us that he only sells one shoe. It was crazy. There had to have been some miscommunication. In the basement they sold a modge-podge of stuff.- all kinds of jewelry, purses, electronics, and other stuff. You are supposed to bargain with the people on the price you want to pay. I found a purse that I wanted to buy so I asked the saleslady how much and she said “180 yaun” which is about $25.00. Ashley was whispering in my ear, “say $20.00.” So I said 20. The lady EXPLODED! She said “20 is no good price.” Ashley, Jessica, and I started laughing. Then she really got mad. She said, “it is no joke,” and ripped it out of my hands. We scurried out of there.

We walked into another building which was full of shoes. At this point we were pretty much frustrated because we were clearly in the wrong place. We never found the rest of the group. We walked down a couple of side streets, looking for where we were supposed to be but all we found were shop after shop of fur coats and some small sport shops mixed in. We milled around for a while and finally decided to get a taxi and go home. We road through horrendous traffic clear back to campus, and were pretty proud of ourselves for making out and back without any Chinese. It cost 100 yuan for the trip there and back which is about four dollars each.

Back at the hotel, we decided to eat at the Blackwell again and got almost the same meal that we had for lunch except we had some completely vegetable spring roll type things dipped in balsamic vinegar instead of snow peas and some chicken that tasted like KFC dipped in some sort of sauce. Before going to bed, I made use of my phone card on Melissa’s cell phone to call Seth and played cards.