Travel Tips to Beijing

I stumbled across this article while surfing by Arun Gupta. Read the entire article here , there are photos.

"Shopping is a LOT of fun in Beijing. There is a great variety of clothes, toys, gadgets, etc. at local shops. And no shopping is complete without bargaining and that too HARD bargaining. For example when shopping at touristy places, such as street-side shops near Great Wall, bargain HARD. The rule that I followed was to quote the price to 10% of the original. Here are some examples:

Tee-shirts quoted 1 for 130, paid RMB 3 for 50 RMB
Cashmere Scarf (can't be original ;) quoted 1 for 160 RMB, paid 5 for 80 RMB
Great Wall Memento quoted 350 RMB, paid 20 RMB
Refrigerator Magnet quoted 20 RMB, paid 5 RMB

Generally the shopkeepers will give a counter offer but be straight-faced and maintain your price. To keep it easy, just stick to your price and pretend walk away. In all the cases, I was approached with my quoted price :) "