“Hey lady, buy a bag?” Words I’ve heard often while in Shanghai and Beijing.  Nowhere near as often as I did on Sunday afternoon when four of us headed to the Silk Market.  We experienced what can only be described as AMAZING.

The Silk Market is a seven-story mall of sorts with individual stalls selling all sorts of wonderful and fabulous goods.  Coats, underwear, silk scarves, luggage, jewelry, purses and custom made clothing; anything you might want or need.  The amazing part of the experience of the Silk Market is the negotiations that go on when buying an item.

It quickly became apparent to our group that Sarah Brannan is an expert negotiator, sometimes getting the sales girls to drop their prices to 20 percent of the original asking price, or getting them to sell two for the price of one.  Sarah moved from stall to stall haggling with the various sales girls, working her magic and buying a multitude of items for herself, her parents and her sister.

Terry, on the other hand, was a sales girl dream.  As Terry would pass each stall, he apparently looked like an easy target, as sales girls would grab him by the arm and pull him in before he realized what was happening.  While he would get away, it would sometimes take awhile.  And even though he got caught the most and for the longest time in the web of the sales girl, he in fact bought the least; leaving the Silk Market with only a suit and some small gifts for others.

We each left with several items and in the end we all felt good about our purchases, our haggling abilities and our experience!