Beijing - The Silk Market

        The silk market... The silk market is very similar to many of the other markets I've been to in various other countries. In this case it is an indoor market several floors high, with stalls selling various different things. Let me first give a little background to being tall, white, and with curly hair in an Asian country. To elaborate on the curly hair aspect, the son in the family I was staying with asked me if I liked the curly hair style. I had to explain to him that my hair is entirely natural; I use conditioner and shampoo solely. He was shocked to discover this, he assumed that I had treated my hair for my curls. In China, I don't think I saw anyone over six feet tall, and most people were much less than that. Finally, blue eyes stand out as well. I was also wearing a pair of ripped jeans (they had a hole in the knee) which is unheard of in China.

        With that in mind, allow me to continue. As is usual in the markets, everyone wants you to buy something. If not for yourself, for your girlfriend, brother, sister, father, whomever. My first little anecdote happened while I was walking by a stall selling jewelry or girls cloths or something. Of course they were calling me to buy something for “my girlfriend”. I responded by saying that I don't have a girlfriend. I was asked why; jokingly I responded by saying that I'm too ugly. To which the young lady who worked the booth said “I think this is so”. I don't think I've ever been called ugly before, but it was very humorous. Fortunately, for my poor bruised ego I was told how handsome I am by several of the other shop keepers.

        Onto the ripped jeans, as I mentioned before, I was probably the only person in the entire silk market who was wearing ripped jeans. Nearly every stall I walked by asked me if I was cold, or what had happened. In my ingenious plotting, I decided to tell everyone that my jeans were ripped because I'm poor and couldn't afford new jeans. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. At one particular stall, a young woman called me in and told me she would fix the jeans for free for me. She was a tailor by trade and couldn't imagine someone with ripped jeans. She was genuinely serious as well. Alas, she couldn't find any needle and thread for me to fix them. None the less, this started us into a conversation. At one point she told I'd need to take them off, and due to the language barrier, I assumed she meant in the stall, and proceeded to do so. She immediately freaked out about how my girlfriend would kill her. I stopped immediately, and had myself a good chuckle at that, explaining that I don't have a girlfriend. I do believe she found me cute or something; she brightened at this revelation. That is until she discovered the copy of Vicky Christina Barcelona I had in my pocket. On the cover of the movie is a picture of two people kissing. This is apparently completely unacceptable, and she was appalled that I had it. She was not one of those kind of girls. I had gone from being a good boy, to a bad boy rather quickly.

        As I mentioned before, I was telling the various stall vendors I was poor and couldn't afford anything because of my ripped jeans. As I said, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. It did, however, lead to the revelation that the Chinese have an excellent sense of humor. While I was walking by one stall, the young lady working there (nearly all the stalls were run by young women, probably my age) called me over. Upon discovering I was poor, she told me she was going to give me money and drug me into her stall. I didn't know what to do, obviously I couldn't accept money from this woman, but I couldn't exactly run away either. She digs into her pockets, and pulls out the equivalent of less then a cent in Chinese money. Then she bursts out laughing, as did her friend. I of course joined in their good humor.

I'll leave the silk market at that. A very fun, enjoyable experience.