4th day in china:
4. 桐鄉 烏鎮 (新世紀) (16th)
TONG XIAN
We woke up early in the morning and got onto the bus (a destination kind) to Tong-Xian, a city in Hang-Zhou that was some 40 min drive from where we were staying. Our uncle-in-law has an office and a flat there (he’s got several) so he said it’d be fine for us to stay at his flat when we go there for the day, since he hardly stays there these days. Excited we were, as he said he’s a very successful business man, we thought his flat would be free and decent, until we arrived there, we found out that it’s at a very dodgy place, and the door’s all rusty. It’s on the 3rd floor, and when you open the main door on the 1st floor, there’s a toilet that’s got really disgusting stuff in it and smells terrible. Immediately we started to wonder if this was a good idea. We got to the 3rd floor with his employees who took us there, and he spent 10 min trying to open the door with the key that doesn’t seem to work anymore. As time went by, we started to think that maybe it’s the best excuse for us to stay at a hotel instead. We finally convinced them that it’s ok, we’ll just stay at a hotel, so his employee took us to the 4-star hotel nearby instead. It’s called ”New Century”, and coz our uncle-in-law’s a Taiwanese business man in China, he may be able to get us a discount, as the hotel’s also owned by a Taiwanese person/company.
THE HOTEL
We managed to get a huge 65% off deal, thanks to our uncle-in-law who had a phone conversation with the hotel staff, landing us a $210 RMB room. This place comes with a swimming pool too, and lots of other stuff that we didn’t manage to use. Brother and I went for a walk around the entertainment building (yes, a 5-story building just for
ertertainment), and the ballroom was exceptionally beautiful. The walk to the ballroom was carpeted in wine red persian rug, with beautiful golden walls and now I wish I had taken some pictures again. The lights were all chandeliers (sp?) and it looked like a dream place to have a formal/masqued ball. *drools*
WU ZHEN (WU TOWN)
We pretty much just left our stuff in the room, and got a ride with the employee friend to Wu Zhen, some 30 min drive from where we were living. It’s a town where the ppl live by the river, and all the buildings are built on water so the only transport’s by boat.
This is the first place where we started buying stuff. The idea about this place, is that it costs $60 RMB each just to enter the town, which apparently keeps the town running. There are normal houses here, and some shops, and all the money would go to them as they don’t really have a job. These ppl have lived here their whole life, and this town’s been here for hundreds of years, so it’s interesting to see them living a very simple life by the river.
They do everything in the river, hence the disgusting colour of it.
You get to see lots of local crafts, things like fresh water pearls, wood carving, wood stenciling and lots of other stuff. We had lunch there, a place where my father found online which said to be the place to go if you want to eat in there.
THE KEY TO BARGAINING
The cool thing about places like these, (at most shops too), is that you can bargain. Whatever you buy, whatever the listed price is, don’t trust it, the better you are at bargaining, the cheaper you can get things for. I first saw an oriental evening handbag that’s listed $15, and I quite liked it, so the lady said ”alright, I’ll give you a discount, how does $8 sound?” and I yelled ”$8 for this?!” and she’s like ”well alright, what about $6?” and I said ”$6 is still too much. Ah well, better luck elsewhere.” so I walked away with father and brother, secretly asking father how much I should try to get that for, he said to me $3 or $4. After about 5 steps, she yelled out ”would you take it for $5?!” and we just kept walking to see the rest of the street. It wasn’t until later, when I came back, she recognised me, and said ”Come on, $5 is the lowest price, it’s how much I imported it for.” and father said ”$4” and she moaned ”$4 is too low! $5 is the lowest!” and father said ”$4!” and she said ”Will you buy 2?” and he said ”We only want one, what’s the point of buying 2? $4, take it or leave it.” and we walked away. She thought for a sec and said ”alright take it.” so I got it for $4. I also ended up getting oriental double-sided pocket folding mirrors, 3 for $10 from $15 each, 2 pairs of freshwater pearl earrings for $15 from $16 per pair, and 6 unbreakable, fade-resistant and water-proof clay cellphone hangers for $5. Again, all these are in RMB, which means it’s around $6 RMB = $1 NZD.
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