Hello China, Burrr

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Well China is preparing us for the weather we will be coming home too. Cold and SNOW. It’s Beijings first snow fall and of course we are here for it.


We bundled up in our hoodies, rain jackets, scarf (as much warmth as we could muster) and set out to look for winter jackets. We decided to go to Silk Market which is a popular place for knock off brand name stuff. The reception at our hotel wrote down the directions in English and Chinese and we set out to find the subway. She told us to turn right onto the main road and right again, so we did and found ourselves in a small hutong (alley). An older gentleman was sitting outside so we showed him our paper. Grunting in chinese he pointed to all the streets to say that the area we were in is what it said on the paper. He called for his wife to come out, and by Tris miming subway with his arm and making zooming noises we finally got across where we wanted to go. Turns out we had to walk down to the main road and turn right.

We heard that the shop workers at Silk Market can be very pushy, and you really have to haggle for prices. We never thought it would be as bad as it was. We got called a stupid couple by one girl because we wouldn’t spend 100 rmb ($16), we were willing to spend 90 rmb. But she wouldn’t come down to that. Another lady was quoting a really high price on a shirt and after we told her our lowest price and walked away, she chased us yelling, “okay okay, don’t you understand the word okay? I’m not scared of you why you scared of me?” Which I replied, “You don’t need to be so rude.” In the end she came down to my price, I got an Abercrombie shirt for $5. We left the market with a winter jacket each, a pair of fake uggs for my feet, and the shirt.

When we returned to the hotel we realized I had forgotten my only hoodie at the market somewhere. L - looks like I’ll be buying a new one.

We also realized that last night when the guy was telling us to turn on our aircon which we refused to do… it’s also a heater!!! We froze all night and fought over the covers, dressed in hoodies, pants and socks for NOTHING!

We waited for a taxi for the longest time before deciding to just take the Subway to get to our couchsurfing host. So here we are, with our big backpacks and an extra bag struggling to get on the subway with one of the worlds largest populations. We were welcomed by Rich into his home and then went out for the most delicious dumplings. They aren’t fried like the ones at home. We dip them in vinegar and a chili sauce. When we came back to the apartment we met his wife Yannie who is a yoga instuctor. Soft spoken, but throws in the odd swear word now and then she told us about another market we can go too which we won’t have to haggle. It’s the market that the Silk market goes to to buy their items. She also mentioned that the store workers at silk market are kind of remarkable. Not one of them probably has an education past 10 years old but they can speak so many different languages. Even when we were there they knew we were Canadian, though we had NOTHING Canadian about us. Our tattoos were covered, we were in normal clothes… they just pick it up.

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