Bargaining

Bargaining

China has changed a lot in the last twenty odd years! Modern, massive shopping malls scatter all cities and fashionable shops align all major streets. However, you could still experience the hard haggling experience of Asia, in China.

Shopping in Chinese tourist traps, souvenir stalls or marketplaces could mean some haggling. You can haggle if prices are displayed or not. You can haggle if the goods are expensive (a hotel room) or not (a souvenir). At many major tourist places many foreigners don’t haggle and hence locals raise their price level even higher, simply because they can. 

Don’t be afraid to highlight a fault, a scratch or a missing component and pick at the object as an inspection. You can pick something up, fiddle with it, put it down, go to the next stall and look at their items… it’s a normal part of the fun, shopping process. But remember, only at markets.

Generally though, don’t haggle in pricey department stores, food supermarkets, public transport (unless a taxi does not use the meter – then there’s scope for haggling). But it's safe to say that haggling is becoming a thing of the past.