"I give you best price."

Today we shopped. Or should I say haggled. Our first stop was Eyeglass City, a four-story paradise in eastern Beijing for Paul—rows and rows of eyeglass shops, all crammed with titanium frames, plastic frames, eyeglass cases, etc. I’ve never seen so many eyeglasses in my life. Paul left with three pairs of glasses for about $80, including lenses, and a pair of prescription swimmer’s goggles for $10. Good deal! Here he is, posing with the helpful shop girl who hooked him up. We had to wait an hour for the glasses to be ready, so we wandered around the neighborhood and found a flea/arts and crafts market where another helpful shop girl gave us a deal on wall hangings.


Later, we took a cab to the Silk Market, a knock-off wonderland where making eye contact with a shop girl means you’re buying it, whatever “it” is – fake Northface jackets, iPods, silk pajamas, chopsticks, whatever. We overhead one lady say she bought an iPod for $35. It was pretty overwhelming with people shouting and grabbing your arm if you even glanced at their merch. We got out of there unscathed, but not before dropping some yuan first.
The rest of our group—all 71 adults and 15 children—arrived today from the U.S., looking as dazed and confused as we did when we landed on Wednesday. It was good to see everyone. You could just feel their excitement.