Calm Spirit/Ying Yu Jade China 2008
Guangzhou Day 2
A gray morning, pollution level is high, but people are out in the parks for morning exercise. A center street that runs through Shamian Island is lined with embassies and the landscaping is a large park setting. There's an area with exercise equipment that are as popular as the tai chi. We're on our way to the jade market, but first need to go to the Bank of China to exchange currency. The US dollar is down, the renmenbi is up, so we are lucky to get an exchange rate of 1 USD=7 RMB, unlike last visit 1=8.27.
The Bank of China is an example of Chinese government at its classic best! The Chinese people don't have a tradition of "waiting your turn in line", so it's very "foreign" that they have a take a number system. Then take a seat and wait. We had travelers checks and cash, it is rare any business in China takes credit cards, and the jade markets are cash only. There's limit of exchanging only $1900 per person per day, and Tom and I each had travelers checks and cash. The bank clerk checked each signature about 10 times, and if I didn't dot my i or cross my t, I had to sign again on the back. They scrutinized the photos on our passports to see make sure we were identified. They counted each bill about 10 times. Then the supervisor did the same thing. More paperwork, stamping, stamping, stamping, and finally our Chinese money. The process took almost an hour! Each jade seller we paid checked each dollar also to make sure it wasn't counterfeit, and they didn't want to take money that wasn't perfect, and rejected several of our bills "fresh from the bank", so we had to return and exchange some of the rejected bills, which took more time. Then the bank took a commission for exchanging money.
Then off to the jade market. The Guangzhou jade market is about two and a half miles from Shamian Island, but the traffic is horrendous, so it takes awhile to get there by taxi. Chinese taxi drivers can tear to ribbons the law of physics about how much matter can occupy the same space at the same time. But amazingly in all our taxi rides, we never saw a vehicle touch another one, or run down one of the endless pedestrians wandering in the streets.
It's a smaller market than Sihui, one long street with alleys on one side, and two large buildings that offer higher quality jade at retail/wholesale prices. On the other side of the road is another jade street, with a building that has regular quality of jade, and a side alley that offers low quality, very obviously dyed jade, but some surprises in between.
There's also a large working Buddhist temple in the middle of the jade market, the oldest Buddhist temple in Guangzhou, and we burned some incense, offered prayers of gratitude, and prayed for blessings for Ying Yu Jade and ourselves.
There are booths, shops, alleys, and people selling jade from baskets and boxes in the middle of the streets. There are hundreds of sellers, thousands of jade pieces. There's a Chinese saying "diamonds and gold have a price, but jade has no price", and in the wholesale jade market, there is NO PRICE on anything. The price depends on what the seller will sell it to you. And you can't buy one piece, you have to choose several to bargain on. Well, technically you can buy one piece, but your reputation as a wholesale buyer will be ruined and lose fact. I know the seller will quote me a very high "foreigner" price, for example, if the price each is 900, I offer 200, which they laugh at, but their price was laughable,too. Then they offer 850, and I offer 200 again, then they come down to 600 and I offer 225, then they offer 800 and I decide the most I will offer, less than one-third of their first price, maybe 275. They almost always reject my offer, and I walk away, only to be called back and my offer accepted. Only one seller in all the deals I made let me walk away. If they are pleasant in packing up my purchases, I look at other things, because now that they know I'm serious, and professional, the next bargaining will be easier.
And no one in the jade markets spoke English, other than "hello", so it's always challenging to understand the stream of conversation. I use my limited Chinese vocabulary, like I need larger, smaller, nicer quality, "please make a cheaper price", and when I speak any Chinese, there is the assumption I know what they are saying. My brain works hard to figure it all out! I was glad I brushed up on the Chinese system of finger counting, and they were always amazed to see a foreigner doing that. But very helpful for working out prices. I know my numbers, but I try to comprehend so much content that the finger numbers are extremely helpful.
We're limited to how much we can buy by what we can carry. Tom pays after I make the deal, keeps a record of what we purchased and for how much, and carries it in his backpack. The streets are too awful to use a rolling suitcase. I was delighted at the good quality of jade, and found very few with cracks. Now, I know you all want your jade bangle to be perfect, but jade is natural, and it's not perfect. There is a saying "the carver always leaves something behind", and there will always be something that's not perfect, usually small scratches. That's part of the charm of owning a hand crafted item.
As shown in the photo above, sellers advertise when they sell "A" quality. They are required to have a government certificate that they sell A quality, and there is a business nearby that will test them. The sellers with the "A" signs offer three times your money back if the jade is not "A" as advertised.
I didn't take many photos in the jade market, the sellers didn't want their photos taken, or photos of their jades. I was the only foreigner at the jade market, and didn't want to stand out any more by taking photos and acting like a tourist!
How do I know I got good prices? Although jade prices have gone up, I expect to pay about a third more than the prices I paid last time. Angel was with us only one day, but she confirmed I had bargained well by what the sellers told her. Often the seller had to call to get permission to sell at my final offer. While there were a lot of sellers, a lot of people, there weren't a lot of people buying things, and we had backpacks showing we were there to buy a lot. I've dealt in China long enough to read a sellers face if I got a good deal. And often they would give me my final price if I "bought two more". I tried to see the prices other Chinese buyers were paying, on the calculators, or with the finger counting. I truly want to be fair, and not take advantage or be taken advantage of.
The number of jade pieces, jade bangles is mind boggling. When I found something I liked, but needed a variety of sizes, from under the tables, out of boxes, would come more bangles, making my choices more difficult. I'd put my selected bangles in a basket, and more would appear, offerings of better and lower qualities. We'd finish a transaction, Tom would pay and pack up the purchases, and the seller would have a new selection out for me, often nicer than the first selections. And offer what I considered good prices, so I'd choose some more, and do just minimal bargaining on the lot of them, for the tradition and for "face", and we are all happy.
Although Tom was loaded down with the purchases of the day, I took a turn on an "interesting street" instead of getting in a taxi. It was residential Guangzhou, the end of the day when people were getting off work, making their purchases of fresh and prepared foods for the family dinner, and wandered through the streets for awhile, enjoying being in China. In this residential area, there were some small jade shops, with perhaps three carvers working and a small selection of the items they made. Sometimes people ask me if jade carvers suffer, their rights are violated in the making of jade, and I have to say that I see these carvers working in the open jade shops, see them working above the jade shops on the jade market streets, and don't see suffering, don't see child labor. The jade carving is an honorable family business, not a sweat shop type of business.
We had a good day shopping, earned our plate of noodles and Pearl River and Tsingdao beer. Why beer? Most of the beverages offered with meals are very sweet and sugary. Water is the bottled kind. We order a big pot of tea, a big bottle of beer not only because we like it, but for health reason. The tea is loaded with antioxidants, and I truly believe the beer disinfects, kills germs, as we never get sick on food when we drink beer with it.
Next - Qing Ping Market and Chinese Medicine
Jade Bangle Bracelets web site
