This past weekend, a couple friends and I went to the Silk Market. If you haven't heard of it, it's pretty much knock off goods galore. They have everything from designer purses, shoes, clothes, electronics, tea, souvenirs, and more all fit into a huge building with like 7 different floors. Only in China haha. When you come, be ready to bargain like crazy and spend money, it's impossible not to!
Right when you walk in, you see rows and rows of small shops where people sell their goods. When my friends and I went in, the first thing we walked into was the purses. I was instantly surrounded by a ton of fake Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, and a lottt more. We went right into the first store we saw and started looking around. That's where I made my first purchase! A Longchamp bag :D I've seen these around the U of M campus a lot and they're so simple looking but handy because they hold so much stuff. I've wanted one for quite a while now so when I saw it, I wanted it right away. I was able to bargain it down from 180RMB to 45 RMB (~$8). I was a happy girl.
Then the most sketchiest thing I think I've seen in China happened. My friend Sara wanted some Louis Vuitton bags. The store owner then proceeded to bring us down two floors into the basement of the Silk Market where all the cars of the store owners were parked. Brings us to her knocked up looking white van, slides open the door, pulls out a couple stools for my friends and I, then starts bringing out cases of knock off purses. It was straight out of movie or something; dim lighting, sketchy deals going on. This woman had obviously done this many times before since she had stools in her van! :P But my friend got some reallly good deals on her purses. My second buy that day was a Louis Vuitton wallet that I got for 40RMB. I definitely needed a new wallet and it's cheaper than any wallet I probably would have gotten in the US. I'm still getting shocked all the time by how cheap everything is. Sara was able to get a tailor made suit and pants for a total of 900RMB (~$150)!! I need to find a job in the US that pays me in dollars but then live in China. I'd like such a nice life haha.
My final buy at the Silk Market was a pair of running shoes. Coming to China, I forgot to bring workout shoes so I haven't been able to do any running or lifting or anything and I feel my muscles melting away. Sad, I know. The locals and international students don't really go to the gym here at all. What I've noticed is that instead, they will play a lot of sports; Basketball, Tennis, Soccer but they don't hit up the gym to lift weights or anything as much as I've seen people do in the US. But anyways, I was able to get my shoes for 90RMB (~$15); down from 320RMB that the owner originally quoted me.
Things I learned from the Silk Market:
1) Do not be afraid to bargain. The owners expect it and quote extremely high prices. You can easily get a price of 300RMB or so down to about 50-60RMB.
2) When bargaining, if the owner is not taking your low price, start walking away and they will run after you lowering their price.
3) For designer goods, many owners have a separate stash of designer products that they don't put out in front for everyone to see. So don't be afraid to ask if they have anything more.
4) Bring someone along to bargain with you. You can play off of each other and get an even better deal when talking to the owner.
5) If you make the owner mad with the price you're paying, that means you got a good deal. For my shoes, I could just tell the owner was frustrated that I was able to get such a low price (because otherwise I would have just gone to another store to buy the shoes). I was happy though haha.
5) I like to bargain. It was pretty much a challenge of who would break first and give in. Kind of like a game... and I liked it! =P
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