Do you like . . .fake?

If you are yearning to hear the English language in China you can head straight to the Science and Technology Museum for the Yatai Xinyang Fashion and Gift Market aka the 'fake market'. This market specializes in watches, leather products, shoes, jeans and other miscellaneous crap. As soon as you walk by your first stand they will beckon you with cat calls of 'hey lady, you want jeans!?'. There are probably only about 20 different products sold in a maze of hundreds of vendors. Negotiating is an art form here but buyer beware you probably already paid too much by stepping into this place. I quickly was duped once I found a business card holder that I had been searching for for one day. I am sure I could find it at another stand but I quickly paid probably 10x what it is worth because I have no patience for this sort of thing. Jeff, on the other hand, loves it. We were on the hunt for some house shoes in the form of 'sheepskin uggs'. We
found them at many different stands and prices ranged from 80rmb-180rmb depending on how stupid they thought we were. Jeff was deep in negotiating for 2 pairs of these for both of us before he got annoyed and decided to walk away. Now if the vendor still chases after you then you haven't surpassed their low point and they will usually yell a lower price at you or at least agree to your deal. We walked away with both pairs for about 110rmb (around $15) so we can be sure we still paid too much. Oh well because these slippers are the best. I am sure we will return to this spot many times as we have visitors but I am glad we got that hot spot off our list. On a side note, don't blame us if these places are not prevalent during the World Expo. The government has been cracking down on a lot of these vendors for appearance sake during this time.