Terra Cotta Shoppers

If you ever get a chance to go to China, and your itinerary calls for (or if your guide suggests) visiting an exhibition, an institute, a factory, or a workshop, be prepared for an example of "socialism with Chinese characteristics," also known as in-your-face capitalism. When we were in Guilin in 2000, it was an exhibition of Chinese painting at a university, where we picked up a couple scroll paintings of the Li River, one of which hangs in our living room today. Here in Xi'an, we were offered a jade workshop, and an institute where we would learn about how the terra cotta warriors were made -- at least terra cotta warrior souvenirs.

To be fair, the latter was actually kind of neat, with little rows of mini warriors in the showroom. With the right camera angle, I could almost pass off a picture of the 9 inch miniatures for the 6 foot originals, with only the identical faces of the facsimiles to give it away. (Yeah, sure.) But actually, a set of three warriors and a horse (with a free emperor -- which is a creation of the "institute" rather than a document of an actual archeological find -- thrown in) was a pretty good bargain for 480 yuan compared to 1,150 at the official museum.

The jade "workshop" was a whole 'nother experience yesterday. After being shown three idle jade carving and polishing stations that didnt' really look like they had been anything but idle for quite a while, we quickly found ourselves in the showroom. Lois was impressed with the looks of a pendant that was price-tagged at the equivalent of about US$3,000. But of course, as soon as we noted the expense as an impediment, we got the old "but for a piece like this we can take off 40%" response, bringing it down to $1,800. Still hesitating, I went into disapproving husband mode, which led to first $1,500, and then "I can talk to my manager..." as we were leaving. When it was clear we weren't going for the used car salesman ploy, and were leaving, we were flabbergasted that the salesperson tried to steer us to look at some silk carpets. She didn't want to hear "no."

Talking about it last night, Lois, who appreciates a good deal as well as good jewelry, said the whole process simply led her to suspect the real value of the pendant. We're not naive -- we know that jewelry has a huge retail markup, but to start with the "retail" price (if they could get it), only to be marked down so quickly and easily just put a question on what a fair price really would be. We surmised that we could probably could have offered $1,000 (fully 2/3 off the original marked price) and taken the piece home.

The punchline...this morning -- the day after the experience -- our guide hands Lois her cell phone. It's the jade salesperson offering a price of $1,150.

Close, but no cigar. But an interesting experience, nonetheless.

[A few days later -- In the tours of Suzhou and Shanghai, the examples were of silk "factories," complete with worms, cocoons, a couple spinning machines -- actually in operation -- and the inevitable salesroom. The damage -- a half dozen scarves and a couple CDs of "classical Chinese music."]