Silk Market

Well, my most important advice is; Don't go here if you're not ready to bargain like crazy.

Silk Market probably the most famous shopping spot in Beijing- for tourists. Because, if you join a holiday trip to Beijing, Silk Market will be on the list of destinations. I concluded that since i found a lot of tourism bus in front of Silk Market. Most customer in Silk Market are foreigners, they really come from all over the world; you can hear various language spoken here.

(it kinda reminds me of Pasar Baru though,,)

To get here, we can take Subway Line 1 to Yong An Li Station. Take Exit C, then you will reach the basement of Silk Market. The basement was for bags and shoes. There was a lot of cute bags, and every seller in every store would try to approach you and say, "Hey, hey... beautiful lady, Gucci... Lois Vuitton... Dolce and Gabbana?" yep, this Silk Market was really a heaven for fake branded stuffs. I'm not into fake branded stuffs, so i wasn't put so much attention. But despite that, you can find a lot of cute bag with really good material here. The seller could speak English pretty well, so it would make everything easier for you.

If you're obviously a foreigner, the seller will give you riddiculously high price. Martyna tried to buy a bag (it was indeed really cute, the leather was genuine, the model was so fashion, and they had various colors and brands-yep brands, awesome huh? XD) and the seller tried to sell it for 400Y. That was insane! they seriously thought that foreigners always have a ton of money, maybe own an IT company, and so on. They should have considered a foreigner like me, huh.

So, we bargained like crazy. She gave the price unshamefully, so we bargained the same way. A little act will do; put a face like you really want it, but say that it's too expensive for you ("Tai gui"= too expensive) and tell the seller that you're just a student and you don't have that much money with you ("Wo shi xuesheng,, mei you hen duo qian"= i'm a student, i don't have a lot of money). Actually, it's much better if you bargain in Chinese; they will be happier and give you the real price more easily. If it's getting hard, pretend that you don't want it anymore and leave, because the seller will chase you and give you lower price. (Indonesian bargaining tactics are really successful here. I'm so happy that i live with Kings, BTC and Pasar Baru my whole life hahaha).

Well, finally we got the bag for 65Y. Ha-ha. Yep, we're good at it.

(Be persistent then you will get it :D)

The ground floor was for clothes. If i'm not mistaken, there were 4 floors in Silk Market. Actually, i think that many clothes in Silk Market are better than other shopping areas in Beijing, especially if you need to buy clothes for old ladies. I managed to find some sweaters and cardigans for my grannies and my mom. Still, just bargain like crazy. If they tell you "100% cashmeer,, blah blah" well, you just need to bargain for the price that makes sense for you. Don't start to bargain from 1/2 of the starting price, try from 1/6. You might have a little quarrel with the seller, but that's the art of bargaining, rite? i strongly suggest you to come here in the evening, because the seller are already pretty tired and they don't have that much energy to quarrel with you. Again, they were really tricky, they made a price tag in every clothes, showing a really high price in dollar. These price tags might intimidate you, but we paid 35Y for a sweater that had 89$ on the price tag.

So, just bargain like crazy.

They have various stuffs in Silk Market. Any kinds of cloth, bags, shoes, and souvenirs. My favorite souvenir here are notebook and glasses case with really chinese clothing. If you want something with fixed price, since bargaining can be mentally tiring sometimes, you can go to a underground area in front of Silk Market, which aligned with the Yong An Li Subway Exit A. They sell many kinds of souvenir for 10Y each.

They also have some cafes and import stores here in Yong An Li. It's a kind of tourist center in Beijing, beside Sanlitun and Guamao. So, you can guess that the stuffs were overpriced here.

(The cafes)

But after all, it's a pretty cool place; for a bargainholic, not shopaholic.