Diary July 7, 2010

Author: Cody Lewis

Today we visited the electronics market. The market is much different than what you would find in the United States. Instead of one big store that sells everything, and customers comparison shopping among the chain stores for the best (fixed) price, the Chinese way of selling is to have hundreds of small stores that all sell the same thing, run by a shop keeper, and where the owner sets the price. Bargaining is accepted and expected, and if you're not careful they'll try to gouge you.

At this particular electronics market, there are half a dozen or so large towers that house hundreds of small shops. As we walk through, the keepers see us and immediately converge, jabbering at us in Chinese and a flow of brand names. “HP! HP! IPod! Asus! Computer! Friend? Dell!” The shopkeepers increase the price by about 2x what they would offer their normal, Chinese customers. In the end, the price of electronics in Beijing is slightly higher than the same thing in the states, even when we bargain it all the way down.

	A view of part of the electronics market. There are four or five sky scrapers with hundreds of small stores inside selling electronics.
	An HDR photo of a path at Tsinghua.
	Another HDR photo, this of a lake at Tsinghua.
	Blim and Cody went night shooting...

//Calender