Dispatch: The Silk Road

It was another pristine day in Beijing. There were no traffic jams and the security lines at the Bird’s Nest were short and quickly maneuvered. Too bad most of us were suffering the residual effects of the previous night’s dinner. It made for a less than celebratory atmosphere in our tiny contingent. It was women, women, women on the track and field. America’s athletes were superb, with all of 200-meter contestants easily winning their heats and all three of the long jump contestants moving on to the finals. However, both of the women’s hammer throwers were pitiful; finishing at the bottom of the pack. Afterwards we caught taxis to Silk Road in the Chao Yang district.

I have never seen anything like Silk Road which is possibly the largest and most expansive knock-off mall in the world. Located near the CCTV Tower, the Silk Road building is seven-stories of fake merchandise ranging from Nikon cameras and designer watches to Tommy Bahama shirts and Olympic trinkets. A premiere destination for tourists in Beijing, Silk Roads narrow aisles were jam packed with a United Nations contingent of bargain shoppers. Pretty young sales clerks, forever flirting and playing coy; compliment potential customers as they punch sales numbers into calculators. “You look so handsome Mister. You buy, you buy? Give me your best deal,” was repeated into narrow stall after narrow stall. Silk Road has to represent the hardest sell that I have ever experienced. It is not a negative experience, but it is overbearing and it does wear one down after a bit.

Silk Road represents the Olympic  knock-off shopping experience. It is not for the faint of heart or those inexperienced in product negotiation.  You know that you are on the right track when the flirting stops, the clerk’s eyes go narrow and their fingers fly furiously over the calculator keyboard. Be willing to walk away from a negotiation and chances are that they will accept your final offer and everybody will walk away happy.

Unless you have dedicated your life to shopping, Silk Road will wear you out very quickly. The girls and I spent an hour negotiating Tommy Bahama shirts. Although we were successful, I was burnt by the end of the deal. While waiting for the wives and nieces, all better trained for bargain shopping, I sat outside and watched a parade of Olympic athletes, including Australia’s beautiful diver Sharleen Stratton, leave and enter the shopping center. Even they looked beat upon exiting.

Absolutely exhausted from the experience we crossed the street for a western style dinner at the Blue Marine. The steak and fries at this little French Bistro was better than we could have expected, and for me at least, a welcome change from Chinese food.  Two Russian wrestlers, at least they looked like Russian wrestlers, purchased pirated DVD’s from the proprietor at the table next to ours.  

Imodium is great stuff. By the end of the day I was feeling much better. Simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated, day two of our Olympic adventure fulfilled all of our expectations.