you wherever the end market is, then its best to come to the source because
chances are someone has knocked it off. I swear, there must be entire factories
dedicated to knock off copies of just about anything that is out there. I mean,
really good knock off copies. The material is the same. The pattern is the same.
The sizing varies but is generally pretty good. But it is in the stitching and
zippers where you have to be careful. These vary from good (it will work for a
couple of years) to OK (it might last for a year) to poor (your lucky if you can
zip it up after you get home).
The last time I visited Beijing was on Semester at Sea in 2001. Our bus dropped
us off at a street market known as Silk Street. It was a crowded back street,
overflowing with shops and stalls filled with everything from Gucci to Polo to
North Face (everyone's favorite). Ironically, it was located outside the US
embassy. Going on this recollection, we headed out on a quest to find the US
embassy and in turn find this land of knocked off products.
Well, either Silk Street outgrew its home or the US embassy decided after 9/11
having this infamous market so close wasn't a good idea. What I remember is
currently a tangle of barricades, barbed wire, and fancy cars. Silk Street, on
the other hand, is now a four-story indoor building, located about half a block
away from the original site. Everything that was outside on the street, and more,
is now inside a modern mall and somehow completely and totally legitimate.
$250-$400 jackets going for $20-$100 depending on your bargaining skills. Of
course they are fake: four years back they were obviously fake, but now you
really have to look hard. Like I said North Face, more than the Gucci, Polo and
Armani, was everyone's favorite four years ago. Well, it doesn't take the Chinese
long to figure out what foreigners want because 4 years later, you can get not
only North Face, but Mountain Hardware, Salomon, Rossignol, Spyder, Columbia,
Helly Hanson and just about anything else you could want, all for $20 or less.
North Face is still king though and it is enough to make you cry if you own any
of the "real" product and paid retail prices.
This brings me to the bargaining process. You have to go in knowing that every
last word out of the shopkeepers mouth is a lie. Every last product they are
selling is a fake, a copy, albeit a very good one. You also have to go into it
knowing you can't spend anymore than $30, even on the nicest, "best quality"
product available.
Street from our 2001 visit.
then start to inspect it because you know it is a fake. (Just to see if the zipper works and how the
stitching is) They recognize this and "say this one is copy but I have real one". Then, they dig into a
giant bag hidden behind their display and pull out "the real one". They say "see: real; good quality".
OK, it might be better quality and it might not, but it is never, never "real". So, you say "how did you
get the real one?, Did you steal it from the factory?" Some of them even say "Yes" because that is what
most people want to hear but this too is a blatant lie. You inspect it and maybe you want to buy it.
This is when it gets fun.
They say "normal price 2000 Y but for you 1200 Y"(that's $250 to $150) . You say no no, I have already
bought one before and I paid only 140 Y (more like $17) . They say no no, not the "same quality".
Eventually, they point to the same jacket on the rack and say OK, this one 150 Y but not real. This one
1200 Y, "real" thing. You get the idea. Whatever you pick is the "real" one and all the others are fake.
Eventually they come down. First to 1000, then it is 800, then 600, then 400, then 350, then 330, then
320, then 300, then 290, 280, 270, 260, 250, 240, and eventually 200 Y. If you stick to your 150 and
only come up in 5s you can get it for about 200 Y or about $25. Quite a process.
This is the normal process. Once we "stepped out of line" and asked another tourist we overheard say he
only paid 100 Y for a jacket which kind of jacket it was. This set the shopkeepers into a frantic state.
The girl with Katrina immediately grabbed her and started screaming "do you want this, do you want this
one, should I put it away?" at the top of her lungs so Katrina couldn't talk to the other tourist. The
other tourist's shopkeeper did the same. They were both so worked up and talking so loud and fast that
neither Katrina nor the other guy could get a word in. That is the technique I suppose. Seeing this I
went over and tried to get them to settle down and come help me. I placed my hands on their shoulders
and said "Shhh, its OK, I have a question for you" but that really set the one shop keeper off. She
immediately snapped at me and said, "Don't touch me!" but somehow, it was perfectly OK for her to have a
hold of Katrina....
So, I backed off and went to grab our stuff, there was no way this girl was getting a sale out of us,
but she went nuts. Literally. Katrina demanded that she let go but she just grabbed tighter until
Katrina pulled out some sort of release maneuver she picked up from a training at work. Soon Katrina was
yelling, the shopkeeper was still yelling, Katrina started talking about calling for the police, the
shop keeper said that, no, she would call the police. I came over with our stuff so we could leave as we
had clearly violated some sort of cheap china knock off market code and negotiations here were over.
Then, the shopkeeper grabbed hold again. This time digging in with her nails. By the time I turned
around Katrina was bleeding, a crowd had gathered, there was lots of yelling and screaming, and the
police were running over. The shopkeeper knowing she might be in trouble then started going off to the
police about how I attacked her.
At this point, we just walked away. I just don't trust the police in other countries. I don't speak the
language and I had no idea what kind of lies were flying out of the shopkeeper's mouth to the police in
Chinese. Besides, don't they use some kind of water torture in their prisons around here?!
After a few minutes, the bleeding stopped and Katrina had mostly calmed down but there was a crowd of
shopkeepers gathered around. We moved a couple of stores down to escape and sat down to regroup. Soon a
crowd regathered. It became clear that we would have to move up a floor to get any bargaining done. It
was funny though, still a bit shaken (and with Katrina's tears still occasionally flowing), we would
scream "Don't Touch Me!!" as a shopkeeper would reach out to grab one of us, saying "you want to buy
North Face?". They would then back off recognizing that we must be the couple they heard a rumor about
10 minutes earlier and say "sorry, sorry, OK no touching... you want jacket?"
All in all we bought ourselves some new ski clothes for a very good price, having a bit of an adventure
in the process, and with any luck they will last more than one season. But probably not...i know, i
know, you are supposed to get what you pay for. But seriously, knowing the truth about the "real"
product, why on earth would you pay anything more?!!
Eric and Katrina
