So I have a quick update this afternoon.  We just got back from the Temple of Heaven and the Pearl Shop; it was a pretty good afternoon.  I'm a little upset that we went shopping at the Silk Market a few days ago because I am beginning to think I spent too much there.  At the Pearl Shop today I was able to piss off some Chinese workers.



To start things off we bought some souvenirs.  I wanted to do better than a few days ago so here we go. They started the price for this item at 280 and that was just too much. After about 10 minutes of talking I was able to talk then down to 20 each (I bought 2). That was less than 10% of the starting price.  I though I did pretty good and it was fun.  We don't really get this experience in the States unless you buy a car, even then you can't go that low.  I had to walk away a few times but they kept calling be back. But that wasn't our best deal, the big score was the purse we bought Kristyn.

We had to visit 3 different places before one would seriously play with us. The starting price was around 1200 but we were able to get that down pretty quickly. The first stop we tried to target 60 but the vendor would only go down to 100. We decided that was too high and started walking somewhere else. We found a good low price that we could get if we wanted to but we wanted it a little lower than that.  Like I said we wanted 60 but the second place stopped at 100 too.  This vendor would not go lower than 100 and told us that was the best price and no one would beat it. Keep this in mind because we talked to them again later.  I will call them Vendor 2 because they were.  The last shop we stopped at for the purse saw us talking to the last and she jumped down to 100 pretty quickly.  Again I tried for 60 but I knew I wouldn't get much lower than 100 if at all.  She did her sales pitch thing and said her purse was a higher quality than the last so I went up to 80.  She said it was impossable so we walked away. As we were walking away she called us back by saying 80, this ended up being a joke.  We came back but she said 180... like we heard it wrong.  We started walking away again and she said 85.  What is 5? she asked. Not much, about 80 cents but I wasn't going to budge from 80. This is the part where she got pissed and so did all the verdors around her.  It is well known that they will not sell an item to you unless they make money but they like to rip Americans off. I don't blame them and I don't really think they are ripping Americans off. I would say its just as much the Americans fault if not more for not watching the locals or knowing the shopping areas before they go there.  So back to the story, we walked away again when she said 85. I think the vendor next to her was cussing us out but we don't know that for sure. The whole language thing. she called us back at 80 and this time she meant it. We paid with a 100y bill and I thought that was kind of funny. Another reason I think we pissed her off is because they normally switch off of the 'I'm upset because you are not paying enough' as soon as you pay.  She didn't and neither did the other vendors arounder her.  Damn Americans... :) Oh yeah, remember Vendor 2?  We had to walk passed them to get to the stairs.  They asked if we wanted to buy the purse. We let them know we had already purchased it for 80.  The look on their faces were priceless. I wish we had our camera ready. I really think we got it for cost if not a little below. It was nice. Maybe we will go back if we have the money.

Oh, to start the day off we saw this really cool MP3 player that was inside sun glasses. They started off at 380.  I thought I was doing good when I got them to 100 but it only took about 2 minutes.  I decided it was too fast and cancelled the purchase.  I think the MP3 player was cool but not for $20 US.  I think that is what helped me get the other deals after that, I was able to walk away if the deal was done too quickly.

At the pearl shop did they actually sell pearls or was it just the name of the shop? If so, I'm curious if they had mostly freshwater pearls or if they had more salt-water pearls? I bet the silk market was "pretty" amazing as well! I bet the colors of the fabrics were awesome!