Today we went to 天安门广场 (tiananmen) and 故宫 (gu gong). Tiananmen means gate of heavenly peace,
and gu gong is the Forbidden City of Beijing. Tiananmen is a massive square,
bigger than anything we have in America, adjacent to the south side of the
Forbidden City and serves as its entrance. There is a giant portrait of Mao
Zedong on the gate, and a new one is put up every few years to keep it looking
new. It was disgustingly hot while we were at the Forbidden City, and being
surrounded by tourists didn’t help either. In the afternoon, we went to the
Silk Street, which is mall filled with knock-off stores where we could go and
bargain in Chinese. Its name makes it sound like a street market, but in
reality it is a 6-story building, lined with well-lit little outlets. I ended
up buying a few things: a pair of pants, a t-shirt, and the one I am most proud
of is a suitcase. I have so many things that I have to bring home and I would
never be able to fit all of it in my one bag, so when I saw the suitcase
section on the map of the mall, I knew I needed to get one. I went between
shops trying to compare bags and prices, and I finally decided on one. The
sales people would take the bags, lift them up, and then slam them down on the
ground to prove their strength. I was walking with Yang Laoshi, and every time
a bag was slammed we would flinch and start cracking up. The sales person gave
me a starting price of 1800元, which is about $270 USD. Being the
aggressive bargainer I am, after about 20 minutes of nearly shouting back and
forth, I got her to bring it down to 200元,
or about $30 USD. I was very proud of myself for managing to get the price down
so low.
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