September 14, 2008

Following the orientation we took taxis with the guide, Joy, to the silk and pearl market. Imagine a 7 story building with narrow walkways between back to back stalls of merchants. Each floor has wares ranging from silk, pearls, cashmere, clothing, etc. literally being hawked by primarily young girls grabbing at you yelling for you to buy and haggle the prices. They pull out calculators to show prices, renegotiate, and yell 'what you want'. They don't like to take 'no' for an answer sometimes foisting the object at you. The overwhelming sales pitches frequently left many of us looking elsewhere. We did find McDonalds! The old fried apple pies are still alive and well in China.