Mister you must be joking - you going to make me cry.

You want me to pay how much? You must be joking, that’s about an hour’s pay. I’ll give you a quarter of that. No? Ok, then I don’t want it. What’s that? You’ll halve your original asking price? Not good enough. Halve it again. No? Then I don’t want it. (Picture me feigning to walk away) Oh so you’ll give it to me for that price but you’re not happy. Ok, thank you. Excuse me? Oh, you want to give me a business card so I can send my friends here. Damn it! I paid too much.

If you enjoy shopping then China is not the place for you. Shopping for me conjures up images of strolling along well polished linoleum and browsing through shop after shop of overpriced merchandise that some TV commercial told me I needed, but I actually have no intention of purchasing. That type of shopping nirvana does not exist in Beijing. If you go shopping there, then you are going to buy, and you are going to work your butt off before leaving any shop with a bag in your hand.

There are two major shopping markets set up for tourists, Yashow Market and the Silk market. These cater for the western tourist both in products on offer, and in the price as well. There’s nothing like the feeling of getting a bargain, but having absolutely no confidence in the product that you have just purchased. Jenene and I are not barterers at all, we generally just pay whatever the price is, but here we discovered some inner bargaining beast that must have been dwelling inside us all along. We were lucky enough to have had some inside information from our friend Michelle, who told us that we should always offer a quarter of their original price. So this is what we did and we walked away with some pretty good buys.

I bought a 1GB Sony MP3 player that, to my surprise actually works! Of course some of the song titles appear in Russian, so luckily I just want to listen to the songs, not know what they are called. Friends of ours bought a 2GB iPod each, but theirs doesn’t scroll or shuffle, and every time they turn it on it plays from track 1 again. I think I did the right thing steering away from the products that everybody wants. Don’t get me wrong, we made some stuff ups. Harper and I saw this really cool magnetic spinning top that when you spin on the plastic you can actually lift it up, remove the plastic and then the opposing magnetic poles make it stay in place, hovering and spinning. Very cool! His original price was a ridiculous $18, but we got him down to $5, so I snavelled it up. Of course I haven’t been able to replicate what we saw in the shop, so it sits in the cupboard until I can build up a year’s patience to sit down and try to balance it properly. Jenene also picked up three Billabong shirts for $5 each………..that she can’t wear. Bargain!

With the right attitude, a lot of patience, and the ability to smile and laugh at odd situations, shopping in Beijing can be a fun experience. Add in a bit of luck and you just might walk away with a genuine bargain, although the odds of this are about the same as finding a four leaf clover in a bindi patch.

Building Character

We had an opportunity last weekend to visit a local orphanage and offer our services through doing some spring cleaning. This was a great opportunity to spend some time with Harper, and give something back at the same time. So Harper and I spent our Saturday morning traveling through the rain to the orphanage and getting down and dirty, whilst inhaling some of Korea’s finest cleaning chemicals.

I was extremely impressed with the way that Harper got in and went about his work. He didn’t complain once, and he didn’t even wait around to be told what to do – he grabbed his cloth and got straight into it. He said that he really enjoyed it and that he had a great time playing with the kids after our chores were done. We took a bag of his toys that he didn’t really play with anymore, and he felt very good about actually handing these to the kids and seeing the smiles on their faces.

This was a great day and we got some real quality father/son time in. It can’t have been too bad because he said he would like to go there again. Hopefully next time the girls will be able to come too.

Surprise Visitor

I received a phone call on Tuesday night from one Mr Justin Schuh. It was great to hear from Schuhy, however I was a little surprised to be talking to him on an actual phone, this being the age of computer phone services. I was even more surprised when he told me that he was calling from Japan, and that he was going to be in Seoul on Wednesday. The downside of this wonderful news was that he was only here for the day, and he had a meeting until 2:30pm before flying out at 7pm. Although it was a short window of opportunity, it was one too good to pass up. I managed to get a bit of time off school and met up with Justin at his hotel, before sharing the bus ride to the airport where we had a coffee before he jetted off for Taiwan. I Can't express how good it was to see a familiar face and share a relaxed and comfortable conversation - we are really looking forward to our trip home in June/July and to catching up with all our family and friends.

He Long Dingling

After visiting the Great Wall and traveling through the mountain pass, we found ourselves at the Ming Tombs – a series of tombs dedicated to the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. The tombs consist of beautifully landscaped gardens, a large pagoda and an underground palace (burial site). The tomb we went to, Dingling, was one of the first to be excavated and has 13 of the 16 emperors buried in its 40 sq km area. This was a very impressive site and we really enjoyed walking around the gardens and soaking up the atmosphere.

(It says - 'Luxuriant Grassland Please Do Not Trample')
Are they serious?

We stopped at the Museum on the way out and were quite amused by the fact that one of the emperors’ names was He Long. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I thought about He Long being buried at Dingling – hence He Long Dingling. Perhaps they knew I was coming.

After the tombs we embarked on a short journey to the “Spirit Way” – a beautifully designed pathway lined with animal and soldier statues that formed part of the funeral procession for the emperors. This was the last stop of our Great Wall/Ming Tombs tour and we were feeling pretty tired by this stage, but it was to stretch our legs one last time before making our way back to Beijing. All in all this was an amazing day, and we gained a real feel for the China of long ago. I was very surprised by how ruggedly mountainous this area was, and also by how brown and dry it was – apparently they have had a very dry year. Can’t help but think that this could mean we are in for an intense Yellow Dust season here in Korea – but that’s a story for another time.