Verry goode! (sic)

Chinese know how to negociate... We don't... Not when we're starting, at least. But we can learn. And we hope to be able to evaluate how much an object is worth, even if we always have that feeling we could have paid less.

That said, China is probably the best place to start, since you need to negociate only in the markets. Not for food.

I started slowly, for postcards. Might not have been the best idea. Postcards are already worth nothing. But it helped me see how the markets work.

I was told I should try to get the third of the price they ask in Shanghai, half of it in Beijing. It is probably true if the seller asks a reasonable price from the start.

In Xi'an, I got an object for a little more than half the price. In Pingyao, around the third of the price. In Beijing, I bought something for eight times less. It comes to a point where you don't know anymore and you start with ridiculous prices.

One thing stays the same. Each seller will tell us he can't lower the prices because his price and his product are in fact "verry goode". With an accentuated "e" at the end. He's always better than the one next door, who sells, of course, mediocre products.

And when they'll eventually give up, because you won't bouge, they will say : "Very hard, you..."

One woman tried, in vain, to make me raise my price. She was hitting me on the arm because I wouldn't go higher. But when I wanted to leave, she would keep me from going, saying she wanted to make business with me. When she finally agreed on my price, I wanted to make sure she understood well.

- Ok for 150 yuans?
- 160!
- No, I said I wouldn't go higher than 150.
- But this is only about 10 yuans!
- Exactly. Only 10 yuans. So you don't need them.
- Ok! 155.
- No. You told me 150.

So I got 150 yuans out and she said : 
- 10 more.

And when I said no, she took the 150 yuans with a sad face... "Very hard, you." They try really hard.

When we don't know, it is better to try several places and ask the starting price, saying that you don't really want the item once the price was given. For one object, they asked 180 yuans. On the next level in the market, the woman asked : "You want my starting price or my best price?"

Best price, of course... 30 yuans. Six times less. And the good thing about it is we still could negociate. Crazy.