This was it. Our last day in Beijing. Our last day in China for that matter. It was good to be at the end though at the same time, hard to believe all that had happened in the past 2 weeks. Two weeks ago we didn’t even really know who this little girl was and what she was about and now could not even begin to imagine life without her --or that we were were without her she seemed so ingrained in us already. I’ve had to laugh as more than a few times this week Todd keeps calling her Sophia. You know she’s a natural part of the family when she’s already getting mixed up with other kids’ names.
There was nothing formal or official on today’s schedule. Most of the other families from Canada we had met were going home today and we wondered why our flights hadn’t been scheduled until Friday. We presumed it was to allow an extra day just in case the Canadian Embassy took longer to process Maylia’s Visa. Thankfully it had come through so today was simply fun -- shopping at Silk Street and Peking Duck for dinner.
Joan met us down in the lobby along with the S and their sweet daughter L. It was interesting to see how well both girls seemed to match their families. The S’s are kind, calm -- simply lovely people. They have been such a pleasure to get to know and we hope we can keep connected in the future. Their daughter too is quiet, sweet (though they’ve said she’s also had her share of tears and tantrums )a lovely, lovely girl of 15 months. We walked past them as they too were having dinner at the buffet restaurant the other night. L sat in her highchair, not a lick of food on her tray or on the table. I asked J how she managed to keep her so clean and she said they fed her a little at a time and that she ate everything they gave her. There is something almost unreal about that level of perfection.
Contrast that with our experience in the dining room. We have rubber bibs and sippy cups, napkins on our laps and ones laid out on the table, with the wait staff having extras at the ready. We go through multiple baby wipes, not to mention utensils and side bends and we try to swoop down and pick up what’s been dropped. Because I am still serving as the baby chair she and I are both accessorized with slops and spills by the end of the meal. Simply put we are a disaster and I feel like we should tip the laundry workers as well as the wait staff following our feast.
Maylia too has morphed quickly from still and silent to precocious and playful. She can laugh as loud as she screams and loves to tease as well as to talk. How were we so lucky to get this girl.
After meeting downstairs we loaded into the van and headed off to Silk Street. Todd and I had visited Silk Street once before with his parents. It was paradise for a clothing coveter like myself. Many of the things I dared only enjoy from magazines were fond in Silk Street at prices lower than I could find at a second hand shop. Sure, some of the items were knock-offs, made to look the same with Chinese labels but they were beautifully made nonetheless and what we found more often than not, were that many of the items were from past seasons, still trendy but a couple of years old. Some even had slight flaws -- Years ago I had purchased a Burberry trench coat for 15 dollars whose button holes were too close to the edge of the lapel. Not a big deal as far as how it looks or wears, but a tremendous deal as far as the price -- a coat that would retail for about $800. So, needless to say, I was a more than a little excited to see what they had in store. We had heard that they ( whoever ‘they’ were) were cracking down on counterfeit goods so we weren’t sure what to expect. We entered the complex, looked at the directory and pledged to meet back in two hours -- only 8 hours less than I would have liked to have spent there. As we walked through the halls past various small stores -- packed full of stock and side by side each other -- we were called to by every, single shop owner -- “ Do you want to buy a t-shirt, a sweater, I have handbags at special price.” Ah yes, the special price, only for you. That was a favourite phrase.
We walked through to get a sense of the place. Each level or section was organized into shoes or clothes or handbags, ties, scarves or textiles. Once we saw the products we were interested in, the next step was to get a sense of their prices -- both what they were asking for as well as what they were willing to come down to. Once you got that, you had a number to take with you to the next place you were looking at, a number that was reasonable for both sides. We definitely wanted a good price -- we wanted a great one in fact, but as Todd said, we weren’t going to grind them down over a few dollars. Where much is given much is required and for all we enjoyed in our abundantly blessed western lives, we could happily afford to give them an extra 5 or 10 bucks -- especially when we were saving sometimes hundreds.
We stopped at a handbag store first and looked at some beautiful brand name bags. The clerk promised us ‘special price’ and punched a number into a calculator.
Mexico, Turkey, Thailand or China, they ALL have a calculator. I can never calculate Yuan to dollars fast enough but I knew enough to know that she was asking a ridiculous price -- she was testing us too. Todd quickly laughed and asked her to give us her best price. They always ask us for what we are willing to pay and Todd gave a number. She countered back and that went on for a couple of minutes before Todd said to walk away. As we did she called out another number, then a lower one, then a lower one. “ You see,” Todd said, now we know what her base is and what we can ask for at any other shop. She had a number of great bags and I said we’d come back -- knowing full well that nearly the same products and prices would be at 20 other stores.
We continued to wander in and out of shops and found a couple more we’d liked but did end up going back to that first shop. Todd went up to the girl and said, “for you, special price” and gave her a number. That disarmed her, she laughed and shook her head and put the handbag we wanted into a shopping bag. “ You broke my heart with that price” she said. “ You broke my wallet” Todd replied. She laughed again and we both left happy. She still made a lot of money and we saved even more. We paid less than $15 dollars for a beautiful leather bag.
The exchange between Todd and the clerks carried on at a few more stores, whether it was clothing, ties or handbags. They would try to talk and plead with me, and I would tell them that my husband was the bank and they need to talk to him . He was also the best bargainer. Frankly I hated bargaining and was no good at it. Todd had turned it into both a science and an art. I suppose we were a good team -- I would try on and gush over the goods so the store clerks would think they had an easy sale. Then I would step away while Todd teased them and went toe to toe with their sales pitch , counteract and catch them off guard by saying “Here is my special price” and he would stick to his amount until they met it. If they didn’t, we would walk away but they would never let us get very far before they called us back and begrudgingly took his money. “ You are very hard” one girl said. “ And your wife and baby are so nice.” Todd only smiled, pointed to me and Maylia and said, “ My wife is nice, my daughter is nice, but I ( pointing to his chest) have a teeny teeny heart!” He was both charming and cheap. There was a reason at the conclusion of our shopping spree our guide Joan said, : “My favourite part was watching Todd bargain!”
At the end of the two hours we , or should I say I, had come out very well with some lovely clothes and a couple of great bags. Other than a few ties most of the items purchased were for me or Maylia. And I have to say, I do love a husband who, when we came home and we laid the things on the bed, he smiled proudly and said, “we did very well” -- when hardly any of it was for him. He was just as happy to have gotten the things for his girls as he would have been to buy for himself.
Sorry ladies, he’s taken.
We returned home for Maylia’s nap and so we could begin to pack and prepare to meet Joan and the S’s for dinner later that evening.
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