BEIJING DAY 4 - HOPPING FOR SHOPPING

The shopping escapade continued during the fourth day in Beijing - either willingly or unwillingly. So as you can see, we were visiting more shopping places more than any historical sites.

(1) THE PEARL PLACE

This was actually our very first stop of the day. The person-in-charge opened up a freshwater pearl and showed us the many tiny pearls inside, unlike a saltwater oyster that produces only a single pearl in its shell. The next step, she started to promote the pearl products such as the pearl beauty cream and the varieties of jewellery on display.

Here are samples of pearl brooches bought. Beautiful?

(2) THE JADE PLACE

I must say this was my favourite place despite the fact that we had no choice but to go here. Firstly, we met this one guy, one of the managers/supervisors, by the name of Steven (if I am not mistaken) who is a true blue Malaysian and had been studying and working in Beijing for 8 years. Steven was a natural born joker and we had a real good time listening to his briefing.

Secondly, we were given a souvenir each: a jade pendant. It did not matter whether it was original or not, that was the only place presenting visitors with door gifts to take back home.

(3) THE KNIFE PLACE

We even went to a place specializing in knives. Not only that, the people here were promoting other products like shavers with rechargeable batteries that were water resistant, scissors and fruits/vegetables slicer.

And what did I buy for myself? The fruits/vegetables slicer because it was the cheapest thing around, that cost 30 yuen = RM15.

(4) THE TABLE CLOTH PLACE

This would be a shopping haven for women and homemakers. The shop was not in the visiting list but luckily I asked Miss Yang earlier where would be the place for people to get table clothes and she kindly diverted us here - but we could only spend a short time here. One of the shop operators is a Muslim (her name is Fatimah) and she could speak simple Malay language and English. The materials sold here were real cheap; I knew it because I had bought the same thing from Langkawi before and they were much much more expensive in Malaysia. If only we had more time...

(5) THE MARKET PLACE

I could not remember the name of this market but the concept practiced here was the same with the previous market we went to the day before. Even the items sold were almost the same. What you have to do was to bargain with all you life today as if you were not going to see the sunlight again tomorrow. But again, there would be more shopping places to visit during the last few days here so better save up before we ran out of money (and energy bargaining).