Dazhalan Road--The Bargain Hunter's Paradise
A few days back I decided to hit one of the highlights in my guide book. There are "19 Things Not To Miss" and I am determined to hit every one--except for the vaudeville Beijing opera. When I was in the vicinity, looking for the street, I couldn't seem to find it. All the locals said "Ah, Dazhalan Dajie!". They all seemed to know what it was, but no one could really tell me where it was. I sort of stumbled into it, mainly because I was harassed by an English speaking Chinese kid. It seemed like he was on a mission to seek out foreigners and sell them pirated DVDs, because after he left me he went looking for someone else. But anyway, he found me looking for Dazhalan and took me to a music/DVD shop. He pulled out countless boxes which were locked up under the counter and had me looking through them. I think they were just for foreigners. He kept saying “that one’s good”, and when I asked, “have you seen it?” he seemed to mumble something and just say “it’s good”. I had picked out quite a few, but once he said they were 15 yuan a piece, I started putting some back. The rule of thumb for buying DVDs is never buy one of a movie that just came out, because most likely it will be just a recording of a movie screen. But as I started putting them back, he had an expression of disappointment on his face. I ended up buying two pity DVDs, for a bargained discount, and then as I was walking away from the store, he caught me and said he could take me to another store that had cheaper DVDs. I wasn’t really angry about the fact that he should have just taken me there in the first place, I just wanted him to leave. I didn't really come to buy DVDs. After politely tellin him no, I went into a clothes shop. I bargained hard for a Polo shirt and got it for $7.50. It looks exactly like the real thing, feels like the real thing, and it even had the tag. Whenever you see me wearing the green Polo shirt, you'll know. Then I went into a chopsticks shop and got the girl to cut her price by about 40%. I was pretty happy about that. I just kept trying to walk away and she kept slashing the price. It was hilarious. And when I tried to walk out after the purchase, she said “your bag isn’t big enough—I can sell you a bag.” Wow, they sure are aggressive. It's like you are their only sale of the day. Another funny thing happened. After eating a piece of watermelon, I couldn’t find a trash can. So I walk for a bit, then hear laughing. It was a man and his son, who were also eating some watermelon. I could tell the laughter was because I was carrying around an eaten piece of watermelon. I told them in Chinese that I couldn't find a trash can, and they told me to just put it on the ground. So I did, right in the corner with a bunch of other trash. They acted like this was perfectly normal. Plastic bottles are similar. Ten plastic bottles can be exchanged for one Chinese dollar. So collecting these bottles is all some people do for a living. Since everyone has to drink bottled water, there is never a shortage. I've watched people drink some water and throw the bottle on the ground, only to watch another person in tattered clothes come up closely behind to pick it up and stash it on his rickshaw bulging with other bottles. And if you find a Coke 2 liter bottle, that's like a bonus. Beer bottles, Styrofoam, and scrap metal are also valuables. In short, recycling is big over here. Anyways, back to Dazhalan. The last thing I saw was the funniest. On my way back out of the street I saw a girl of about 7 or 8 just squatting. At first I thought she was just resting. No. She was peeing in a storm drain! And this storm drain is in the middle of Dazhalan, a hectic pedestrian street, with probably 500 people around her. Didn’t even phase the regular passersby. Her dad was just standing over her just kind of looking out for her. After being exhausted from my shopping I was thinking about going to the Westernized Chaoyang district to check it out, but my feet hurt so bad I just went home and had McDonald’s—the new Mega Mac (4 patties), a chicken sandwich, and a chocolate shake. Phenomenal.