Bargaining:

Shopping inChinameans 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. So you must be especially determined when bargaining for a lower price at these locations. At least halve the asking price at major tourist spots. 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. 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) and often for small purchases such as bottles of water or snacks from small street shops. Depending on the product, a reduced asking price of around 20-30%, sometimes more, should be possible.