More Funny Stories From China
Posted by Aurus | Filed under Holidays | 51 views
Which I forgot to include in my post about my trip to China, so here they are.
Whilst bargain shopping in Beijing.
My bro wanted to buy some magnets to give as souvenirs to his friends. At the first stall we approached, the girl tending shop said that they were 45 yuan apiece. Uh, are you kidding? No, thank you. As we were walking away, the girl asked, “How much do you want for it?” We didn’t bother haggling and just went off. Guess what we saw in the stall right next to the first one? Yep, the same magnets. Bro got them for 5 yuan each.
In our Shanghai hotel lobby.
To make a long story short, the receptionist referred to me and my bro as “two little kids”. That’s what she really said, in Chinese. My bro and I are 18 and 22, respectively, and she didn’t even call us “two teenagers” or “two young people”. She really said “two little kids”. It was pretty funny.
Whilst shopping at Yu Yuan Bazaar. I was looking to have a Chinese name seal made.
Girl tending shop: 170 yuan, write your name in Chinese.
Me: 50 yuan.
Girl: No, no.
After I haggled for a bit, we started to walk away - there were other shops selling seals anyway.
Girl: (chases after us and latches onto my arm, trying to pull me back) OK, 50, write your name in Chinese. 50!
Me: No.
Mom: We’ll come back, thank you.
Girl: (still pulling at me) 50 yuan. OK, 40!
Me: No.
Girl: (still holding on) OK, 30!
Me: No, thank you.
Girl: (finally lets go) *insert Chinese cuss words here*
Got my name seal at a different shop for 25 yuan. Haha, that was a fun experience.
At Yu Yuan Garden.
Tour Guide: If you clap your hands, the fishes will come to you and look for food. (claps a few times)
Dad: Really now. (starts clapping)
Me and Bro: Oh cool. (joins in the clapping)
Soon enough, the koi fishes - like a bazillion of them - start swimming toward us. But unfortunately we didn’t have any food for them.
Bro: (waving his arms) Oh no, go back! We don’t have any food, we were just kidding! We’re sorry, go back! Go back!
Believe you me, there’s more where they came from!
April 9th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Haha your bro is funny! 2 little kids?! Ha! weird..
April 12th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Wow… I marvel your bargaining skills!! I hope I’m able to do that when I go to HK… that will be a scary experience!!
April 12th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
LOL, our tour guide taught us how to haggle “properly”. The places we went to are often flocked by tourists, so the sellers really jack up the prices of their goods. HK’s not as bad, I think.
April 14th, 2008 at 2:35 am
It appears that vendors have strong instincts of knowing tourists, huh? After all, you’re Chinese (right?). And how much is a yuan?
April 14th, 2008 at 9:22 am
In Shanghai, our tour guide actually told us NOT to speak in Chinese when haggling - strangely, the vendors would only give discounts to tourists.
1 yuan is about 6 pesos.
April 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Well that’s nice at (least).