Silk Street Market - Bejing - TravBuddy

Although The Silk Street Market is a 1/8th the size of the Mall of America the Silk Street Market sure as hell tried to pack all of goods of it in the 5 floor (including basement) building. I usually don’t like to hit up these kinds of touristy type shopping malls but, if you want any type of counterfeit high fashion accessories, Skiing Jackets, “exotic” silks, custom made suits, A.D.D. toys, Mao Zedong propaganda, new shoes, and absolutely no cash afterwards Silk Street Mall is your heaven but, soon to be hell! This place is great for bargaining it can be dirt cheap if you stick around and bargain as long as you need to, but this market will surely become a hellish nightmare once you plunge into a massive debt spiral of buying frivolous items and just before you crash and die from debt or of your arms detach due to over weight bags you might be lucky enough to find the exit to retire for the night!
The place is cramped and every shop keep wants your money they though can obtain about as much of it as you want to lose it. This is how I roll even though I spent close to 2000 Yuan I got a lot more than I would ever get for in the U.S. for its same amount ($300). I managed to purchase this much: 1 Quicksilver shirt, a Volcom shirt, a 2008 Olympics shirt, a China Football Jersey (w/ shorts), 1 Versace Clutch Purse, a pair of fake Nike 90 Football shoes, 1 black skinny tie, 2 Mao Zedong buttons and my favorite Purchase a custom made three piece suit black w/ purple lining in it for yours truly.
SO Bargaining (my method)
1. Know a rough estiment for the things you want to buy (to prevent what I call “O shit why did I buy this” Syndrome.
2. Know what you would pay in your own country and pay at least a 1/4th to ½ of the price (less if you can).
3. Go in and just look do your thing and once you find what you want Never I repeat NEVER let them know you really really want it till towards the end or they wont go down as much!
4. If you want something for 80 and its 160 say you want it for a ridiculous price of 40 and keep it going till they get to 80 or lower. Leave if you must and they will shout lower and lower (you can return)???
5. If you get close to your price for something not that valuable then just keep repeating your price and that should break them.
6. For really valuable things you won’t find them here! But for suits, silks and ect. You can get them for at least half the price of where you’re from usually!
7. NEVER BUY SOMETHING YOU DON”T WANT!!!!


Basically after a while your should tire of everyone raping my wallet continuously so you will leave after making another purchase while your leaving.