Tomorrow we are doing the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City & Tian'anmen Sq the next. That means a great deal of walking is in order. Sabariah purposely wants to buy her walking shoes in Beijing, so off we go to this huge shopping arcade.
Yes, a true shoes' galore indeed, and she settles for a late-model 'Puma' walking shoes. The rosy-cheeked girl says, 280 yuan (that's a bit less than RM140). Sabariah's street-wise embassy friend says, 50 yuan! A verbal argument follows, with us using a smattering of Mandarin, but we ain't budging. So when all seem lost, we decide to leave, but the shopkeeper chase us and concede defeat. I'm not sure if her face is still rosy-cheeked or actually red with anger, but what the heck, we got it for a mere RM25.
The ladies seem to enjoy this sort of 'barguing'. For me, it seems a tad stressful. I don't think I can bargue every time I want to buy something (even to buy ice-cream?). It's just tedious. But look at the pic - a pair of great-looking leather shoes for less than RM50? You'd be tempted too, but do bring a barguing lady along. :-)
After the hard work of barguing done, we went to the top floor and found a food court, complete with a halal stall too (2nd pic).
.naim
ps: The Puma lasted the trip in good condition and is now sitting pretty at home.
