The Price is Right

Here’s another fascinating little thing I learned the other day.  One of the first words everyone learns when they come here is duō shao, which means “How much?” So if you’re at the market and want to buy something, you can just point at it and say duō shao? Or, you can say duō shao qián, which means “How much money?”

The fascinating thing is what duō shao actually means.  Duō translates to “much, many; more than, over,” and shao means “few, less.” Thus duō shao means “Much or few?” And if you use the full phrase duō shao qián you’re basically saying “A lot of money or a little money?”

No matter what price they give you, however, it’s marked up by 400-600%, because they think foreigners are stupid and will pay way too much money for things.  And they’re right, you ought to hear the prices some tourists pay at the markets for souvenirs and knock-off clothes.  They’ll see something like a Chairman Mao t-shirt, ask how much, and the salesgirl will say “200 yuan.” That’s 28 dollars.  The tourists, thinking they’re going to haggle down to a great deal, will offer 100 yuan, to which the salesgirl will say “Okay!” The fact of the matter is you could get that shirt for about ¥20 or less.

When I go haggling (which I fucking love to do) I am, by virtue of my size and my pasty white Irish skin, presumed to be a tourist.  So they pull the massive markup game on me and I come back with a realistic price.  They wail in offense, telling me there’s no way they could sell it to me for that low.  It’s then that I say, “Look, I live here.  I know how much this crap is worth.  You’re going to make plenty of money bilking ignorant tourists, I’m not going to play the game.  Make me a good offer and I’ll buy it, otherwise piss off, I’ll buy it somewhere else.  All you guys sell the same shit, I know I’ll find someone in here who will sell it to me for this price.”

Inevitably I win.  Score one for the White Devil.