Day 43: Silk Market

A group of us made a venture to the Silk Market: Eva, one of the Indonesian girls; Ashley, the American; Andrew and myself. Here there is an astonishing selection of fabrics and tailors, meaning you can purchase your own material and have it tailor-made into a suit or dress all on the same premises.

Andrew and I had actually visited the market a couple of times before, Andrew ordering a qípáo (旗袍) to be made for his girlfriend, but neither of us had yet ordered a suit.

It was Eva's first visit to the Silk Market, so we had a look around a number of the stalls. She decided not to purchase anything here though as she was also visiting Beijing where everything is cheaper (because of the size and location). She did assist me to buy a suit though as she has excellent Chinese language skills. There were two stalls I was interested in because of the fabrics. We went to the first, but they failed to offer a satisfactory price. Eva felt this was because I was a foreigner and so they thought they could charge more. We came close to agreement, but they then explained they would use another material, not the one I wanted. All three of the people at the stall furiously tried to bargain with us, but we just walked away.

The second stall was much more satisfying. Predictably, their starting price was much higher than we felt reasonable, but this was quickly brought down. Soon the stall-owner was taking measurements and I flicked through the pattern book. I am not sure what the final product will be like, but can collect it in a weeks time!

Another purpose for our visit to the Silk Market was to meet with a stall-owner there, Ming. We had met Ming on our first visit. He owns a button and zip store (very necessary in such a place!) and has been teaching himself English using books, television and radio. By all means his command of English is excellent. Ming had invited us to meet with him for dinner sometime, and tonight we were all available. He took us to a nearby lamb restaurant, 忠华手抓大王 Zhōnghuá　Shŏu　Zhuā　Dà　Wáng (literally, China's Hand-grab Mutton King) which proved excellent. It was a very interesting conversation, and Ming's self-teaching methods had clearly served him well. And in traditional Chinese fashion, as he had invited us (and especially as it was our first meeting), he settled the bill. We were very gracious towards his kindness and all marvelled over the good people we had met as we returned home.