Throw It in the Bag: A Day at the Silk Street Market

Today was my first free Sunday in Beijing.  So what did I do?  Go shopping, of course.  All jokes aside, there are many things here I still need.  I didn't bring sufficient footwear, for example, and since I've been so diligent about getting to the gym (can you believe it?), some new shoes and a gym bag were in order.  Even with my sufficiently meager experience living in Beijing, I knew that I would surely score a bull's-eye at the world-famous Silk Street Market (秀水街), a staggeringly large complex of over 1,700 boutique retailers, which in 2005 replaced the old alley-based market system.  Hopefully, when I'm one day world-famous (right, Jared...), it will not be for selling counterfeit designer handbags and Chinese tschotskes...

This is of course Silk Street Market's specialty, despite mounting pressure from the development's management, government authorities, and the fashion industry at large.  Unsurprisingly, the individual retailers insist that the items are real, and being the lay consumer of fashionable consumer goods that I am, I am in no position to determine whether any particular item is genuine or counterfeit.  That is my final and unwavering position.

I will say, though, that my skill in the ancient Chinese art of haggling is quite refined, although my disposition to the activity stems from different genealogy.  I left the Silk Street Market arms full, pockets with money to spare, and the unfortunate moniker "Fat Niggardly Baby," an amalgamation of the various insults I received from the retailers in the market.  It's unclear how much of it was an act on their part to make me feel like I had gotten a good deal.  Either way, I have no qualms about my conduct despite their indignation.

Throughout the day, I was guided by a few rules I had learned in Hebrew school as a kid: 1) Never waste a salesperson's time.  It's rude and wrong to toy with someone's livelihood.  2) Don't offer a price you're not willing to pay.  If you've offered a price that's been accepted, you've overpaid, but the fault lies with no one but yourself, and you must pay.  And 3) Only shop for things you actually need or will really, really make you happy (either by using it yourself or giving it to someone else).  That way you'll never feel guilty and won't wind up with a bunch of junk to schlepp around with you.  Follow these rules and you will go far... and 满载而归 -- return from a rewarding journey.

Oh, and by the way, the shoes I bought are absolutely fabulous.