TOURISTS CAN GO TO FRIENDSHIP STORES
By Betty Van Leer

  The shoppers in our group had a grand time in China. We are always tightly scheduled with meetings, visits to newspapers, factories, etc. on these trips, so you learn to shop fast. We don't get to out-of-the-way places, and most of our shopping was in the Friendship Stores, hotel gift shops, or from vendors who operate stalls near tourist attractions.

  The Friendship Stores have set prices, no bargaining. Practically everywhere else bargaining is not only acceptable, it's expected. Since few of the Chinese spoke English, bargaining became an adventure.

  We bargained using everything from fingers to numbers written on paper and even calculators. The merchant would punch in his asking price, then you cleared the calculator and punched in your offer. This continued until you either bought the item, or decided it was more than you wanted to pay and walked off. It was not unusual to end up buying an item for less than half of the original asking price.

  When we were leaving the Great Wall, which we visited on a day trip from Beijing, our bus was stalled for some time in traffic on a narrow road lined with souvenir stalls. Seizing the opportunity, we opened the bus windows and quite literally did window shopping out of the bus windows.

'Window Shopping'

  A specialty there was handmade wall hangings, jackets, vests, hats and caps done in bright red cloth with hand piecing, appliqué and elaborate embroidery. Shops featuring these were right next to our bus. Members of our group who hadn't bought some of these earlier did their bargaining through the windows. We had bright-red souvenirs and yuan flying around like leaves in an autumn breeze.

  Surprisingly, Buddhist temples, and we visited several, starting with the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai, were usually pretty good shopping places. Each temple had one or more counters where you could buy prayer beads of gemstone or wood, intricately carved giant olive pits, hand-done pictures, ceramic figurines, figures carved from jade or soapstone, and other oddities.

  Some of the temples had strings of beads called Lohans, which are found occasionally in the States. The Lohans were followers of Buddha and each bead represents a different man. Almost all of these are carved from giant olive pits, although I did see one carved out of carnelian (red agate). Some of the faces have their mouths wide open; some have long hair; others no hair, but very long eye-brows; a few have individual teeth carved in the front of their mouths; some look pleasant and others fierce. The quality of carving varies widely, depending on the skill and dedication of the carver.

  Also carved from giant olive pits are tiny boats with doors that open and close; Buddhas; fisherman with almost lace-like nets; other faces; fruits and flowers. The giant olive pits average about 1 ½ inches long.

No Shortage

  The stores have no shortage of things to buy. Shelves are filled with cloisonné vases, bowls, plates, figurines, eggs, necklaces, brooches, earrings, even cloisonné chopsticks and pens; porcelain and china of many types, including vases with intricate flowers; each petal and leaf in exquisite detail; jade figurines and jewelry; elaborately embroidered wall hangings and clothing; silk and brocade yard goods; silk scarves, dresses, blouses, shirts and ties; paintings on paper, also on silk; plique a jour enamel bowls, plates and cups; articles in lacquer or cinnabar; and wood carvings.

  Fine quality jade was expensive; but a lot of jade is of lesser quality and inexpensive, especially some of the smaller carvings. In some cases the carvings are from a different material which resembles jade. Gem quality serpentine is one of those used.

  Many of the other things for sale are not expensive at all, at least when judged by U.S. standards. As a shopper, you are limited only by how much money you want to spend and the very practical consideration of how much weight you are willing to carry, or pay for. (In China, if your bags weigh more than 44 lbs. you are charged for the over-weight on plane flights.)

  It's not a good idea to accumulate more than you can carry yourself because that is probably what you will end up doing at some point during your trip.

  Xian is noted for its army of terra cotta soldiers, which were unearthed by a farmer only a few years ago and received a lengthy write-up in the National Geographic. These replicas of foot soldiers, archers, officers, horses and chariots were buries with an emperor to guard him in the after-life. We were told that in earlier days, they buried the actual soldiers who attended the emperor. Someone decided this was a waste of trained men, so they made terra cotta replicas, and it is believed each represents an actual soldier in the army. As the years passed, the replicas got smaller and smaller, then someone decided there was no real reason to use terra cotta anymore. The custom finally evolved to the use of paper replicas.

A Miniature Army

  Souvenir shops inside the huge hangar-like buildings which protect the terra cotta army sell miniatures of them, neatly packaged in a cloth-covered box. The local people sell replicas too, unpackaged or in mesh bags, as we discovered when we got outside. I ended up with a mini-army of seven soldiers and a horse, which got heavier and heavier as our day progressed. In fact, the army almost escaped when their helmets punched holes in the plastic bag they were in. 

  Women were selling carved and painted wooden ducks outside another tourist site near Xian. As I was heading for the bus, one offered to sell me three ducks for 10 yuan (something less than $2). I wasn't too interested, but she persisted, first adding one smaller duck, then a second, all for the same price. She wasn't going away, so I told her I'd take the ducks.

  No sooner had she left then another woman came up, also selling ducks. I tried to explain I already had plenty of ducks. She either didn't understand, or didn't want to. She also kept adding more ducks to those in her hand, all for 10 yuan. When she got up to seven I decided I'd better take them, or I'd end up with too many dicks to carry. Luckily, the second woman also had a small plastic bag for my flock of ducks, which had reached 12. some of the other women in our group were quite disappointed that they found no duck sellers. I don't know how they were missed, but I shared, cutting the size of my flock to a more manageable number.

  Often, it seemed some of the most interesting things appeared just as we were hurrying back to the bus to go somewhere else. In Xian, as we were walking from a temple to where the bus was parked, a man was standing in front of his shop holding a black cotton jacket with elaborately embroidered dragons, butterflies, flowers and insects on the shoulders and down the front opening. I really wanted that coat, but we had no time to stop and the one he was holding was too small.

  Using either sign language or one of our interpreters, I managed to let him know how I would buy one if he had it in my size. He called directions to a woman inside the store while I continued walking, slowly, down the street. Quickly he came out with a larger coat just like the other one and, as he gave the coat to me, I handed him the 50 yuan he wanted for it. "You'd better try it on," my husband Bob said, so I slipped one arm into a sleeve, took a quick look, said, "It'll fit," and hurried to catch up with the rest of our group.

  Shadow puppets, made from translucent painted donkey skin, were another interesting souvenir in Xian. The brightly painted flat puppets are made so their arms, legs and heads move by using sticks attached to them. They include people, real animals, dragons, people riding on animals. Puppet masters use these to put on plays and they probably represent characters in Chinese stories. Unfortunately, we barely had time to buy a few and didn't get them identified.

Riverboat Merchants

  In Guilin, we took a boat trip up the Li River, which goes through peculiarly shaped limestone mountains, called the "stone forest", depicted in so many Chinese paintings. Often in the paintings, the mountains, which resemble a long loaf of french bread cut in the middle and standing with the rounded end on top, seem almost lost in the haze. Bob and I thought before we actually saw them that this was probably only an artistic interpretation. It wasn't. They really do have a haze around them, becoming increasingly shadowy in the distance. We also thought perhaps there were only a few, but they go on for miles along the river.

  Many, many boats loaded with tourists travel daily from Guilin to a small town several miles up stream and the people along the riverbanks have learned to capitalize on their captive audience. Shortly after we left the docks, we saw a small raft, poled by one man on each end, with a large basket in the center leave shore and head in our direction. The raft was a simple one, made from five pieces of huge bamboo lashed together. We all watched to see what they were doing, since they were heading our way.

  We were sitting at tables on the bottom deck and had a panoramic view of the mountains and river through large glass windows. Soon the raft came alongside, and one man grabbed hold of our boat while the other reached into the basket and unfurled a giant-sized red fan, painted with flowers and birds. He held the fan next to the window and watched us expectantly, tapping on one of the windows, which opened, to attract our attention. Soon someone opened the window and began bargaining for the fan, which was just what he had in mind. He had giant fans in several designs and colors. When our group lost interest in these, he brought out smaller intricately carved sandalwood fans.

  As our boat traveled farther from the raft's starting place, that set of merchants dropped back, then another raft would quickly leave shore to take its place. This time silk scarves were unfurled for our inspection. Someone started bargaining, and we determined the lowest price we could get the scarves for was 11 yuan. "I want two red ones and a blue one, and here's the money," someone said. Our National Newspaper Association tour leader, Joann Buckley, acted as broker for the scarves, pointing at the ones someone wanted, and handing the money out the window.

  When everyone quit buying scarves, the man dug deeper in his basket. This time he came up with a primitive wooden model of a fishing boat with a clay fisherman and clay cormorants, which the Chinese use to catch fish, and the sales continued.

  If the time we were up river was any indication, a large number of boats make the trip daily, so the raft merchants have quite a captive audience. We were told they were mostly farmers, who have developed this sideline to add to their income.

Hainan Island

  One of the last places we visited in China was the island of Hainan, not too far off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea.

  One of the highlights of our trip there was a seafood luncheon at a beach spot the Chinese are starting to develop into a tourist attraction. We went by boat and one of our dedicated shoppers, looking at the wide sandy beach lined with palm trees, said, "Betty, this time they've managed to find a place where we won't have anywhere to shop." I had more faith in the local entrepreneurs, so I suggested she wait and see what developed.

  Sure enough, on the landward side of the beach, we found two small open-air stands selling local products: boxes, some of which looked like turtles and pigs, made of coconut shells with seashell eyes and tails; seashell necklaces; three-tiered hanging pieces of coconut shells held together with shell strands; and girls' heads carved from coconut husks. They also hand rings and bracelets made from turtle shells as well as whole shells for sale but we doubted if we could bring these back to the U.S., so the shoppers concentrated on the coconut shell items. Chinese are good business people. In China, as well as most anywhere else, if people are coming around who might buy, you can be almost sure you'll find something for sale.