Bargaining for shoes and Beihai Park

Well, yesterday was not too eventful. It consisted of finding shoes. I headed for Sanlituan Market, one of the bargaining markets with 5 floors, each filled with lovely fake products. For 1 yuan (1/8th of a dollar) I took the bus there. I didn't really find shoes during my first attempt up 4 floors, so I took a pitstop to get a pedicure. The guy doing my toes did a wonderful job prettying everything up, and I also got it exfoliated. Walking in flipflops just makes one want to pretty up their feet. I sat next to a Canadian woman who got a french manicure, and she told me that the shoes/bag floor was in the basement. Duuhhh, of course there are basements, why didnt' I realize that? So after my pedi break, I headed down to my main goal: sneakers.

I went around to just take a glimpse of the fake shoe market, and finally decided on a pair of Nikes. Grey "leather" with pink laces. As the receptionist told me that shoes usually cost 50-80yuan, no more than 100, I got prepared to bargain. Before heading down, I only put 90 in one compartment, and the 200 in another. She first offered 400yuan, and I told her I didn't have that much, and she was like give me an offer then. I told her I didn't have that much money on me, and so she asked how much. I told her 80. She said be serious, and slowly dropped it to 200, then to 120 (saying i get a "little" profit) and I kept on telling her I only had 90, and ddn't bring any cred cards on me since my "friend" told me to keep it at home. I told her I can't afford it and only had 90. Finally she said 90, and I was like 85, and said I needed transportation money back home and opened up my wallet. She was like- man you're serious about that 90, and I told her 85, and made sure she had the 5yuan change in her hand before giving my 90. Thus, was my first bargaining experience.

I decided to walk back to the youth hostel, thinking that it really wasn't that far away. It was about 5 big blocks on the map. It turned out to be 11 huge blocks, lots of walking, and total exhaustion. By the time I got back to the nantaoluo road I live on, I couldn't walk another 2 more blocks to the hostel and just stepped to some empty cafe for a cup of tea. Crashed for a few hours, wokeup for an hour or two, then went back to sleep.

Thus today, I decided to do something touristy. I headed to Beihai Park, where there's a huge area of land and the White Pagoda. The lotuses in the water were gorgeous. After paying 20yuan into Beihai, it was another 1yuan to get into Round City, and another 2 yuan to climb up some part of the while pagoda. I opted out of the 2nd one since it felt like I'm paying to exercise. Even though I'm on my feet 10hrs a day waitressing, somehow walking through Beijing for a shorter period took more energy. One thing I realized early on: The smog above Beijing will never clear up for a pretty blue sunny day.

After getting a pedi, I feel like I should start collecting some nice shoes. As I heard in Hana Yori Dango, Good shoes take you to good places. or something like that. In a way, I believe it, or that's just another excuse to pamper myself. :P