Tourist - with a capital T

I've been in Beijing for a DSLForum conference all week. I've done a bit of sightseeing when I've had the chance, but the conference kept me pretty busy during the week. The only time I really got to see anything was when a group of us would go out for supper after the day's meetings were finished.

The conference ended on Thursday and with my flight not leaving until late Friday afternoon, I found myself with some time to kill. There were several things that I absolutely wanted to do while I was here - see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. Anything else I managed to squeeze in would simply be a bonus.

I managed to see the Great Wall earlier in the week, leaving me only with Tiananmen Square. That certainly wasn't going to take all morning, so I needed something else to do to fill the time.

All week, my colleagues have been going to various places and buying the "famous" Chinese knock-off watches. I've been to China (Shanghai) twice before and was used to being accosted by the street vendors peddling the watches. I had absolutely no interest in them - 1) I already have plenty of watches and 2) these watches are known for becoming non-functional shortly after purchase. As such, I blew the whole thing off day after day.

Every day, someone would show up and say, "hey, I bought a Rolex last night" or "check out the Tag I just got!" The whole thing started to become rather intriguing and, unfortunately, I caught the bug and decided that I, too, needed to do the ultimate in tacky tourist behaviour and buy myself a knock-off. Everyone in my group was managing to get the watches for $25 or less, so if I figured that if the thing manages to survive a couple of weeks, I'd certainly get $25 of entertainment value out of showing the thing off to my friends.

With the extra time to kill, I decided to go to the YaShow Market (Yaxiu is the correct pinyin spelling). Most of the watches I had seen were bought there so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon.

It was absolutely insane.

The "vendors" had every model of every luxury watch brand you can think of. They have huge catalogs listing them all. If you don't see the one you want, you simply ask for it and they either pull out a case with more watches in it or go out back somewhere to produce the desired piece. What is the most amazing thing is that, quality of the movements aside, these watches look identical to the real thing. In many cases, the differences are so subtle that you'd never really know the difference.

Once you've selected the watch (or watches - they try to sell you as many as they absolutely can), you begin the negotiation process. I knew what people had paid for several watches that interested me, so I went into the process knowing exactly the maximum that I would pay.

I started looking at some Breitlings, which I really liked the look of. I picked out a Rolex for Andrea and a TAG Heuer for a friend (who had asked me to get something interesting if it wasn't too expensive). The vendor came up with an opening bid of about 2500CNY.

Now, since I was really only willing to pay a maximum of 500CNY for three watches, I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to be able to get them down that far. Thinking that maybe the Rolex and Breitling were going to be a little too expensive, I replaced with a second TAG and a Bvlgari. Indeed, the price came down, but I don't know if it was because the watches were "cheaper" or because the vendor was trying to "entice" me.

And so the really hard bargaining began. They offered about 2100CNY, which I countered with 400CNY. They completely laughed at me, which I totally expected. Still, I stuck to my guns.

"400. That's all I'm going to pay."

"For one watch, yeah?"

"No, for all three. 400. That's it."

They came back with some other completely insulting number - something like 1800. I laughed.

"Ok, ok. 450."

"Why only 50? Come on, that for one watch. 450 for each."

"Absolutely not. 450 for all three."

There were a few more exchanges, but they really wouldn't come down past about 1500. It was time for some hard ball.

"500 is the absolute best offer I can give you. 500 for all three watches."

No budging.

"Look, my friend bought this exact watch here yesterday for 150. If I were to buy 3 of them, that would be 450, so you're actually getting an extra 50."

"No way! No way! Can't sell to you."

"500 for all three. That's my final offer."

Nothing.

"500. Last chance."

It was clear they weren't going to accept that. So I did what you always do in this situation. I started walking away.

I got about 10 feet away and, without looking back, called out, "500, going once!".

I walked a few more feet. "500, going twice!"

"Ok! Ok! 500!"

And so I got my three watches for 500CNY. Knocking them down to 20% of the original offer certainly seems like a good deal, but I know that I still got taken to the cleaners. :) If I had pushed, I probably could have gotten the whole lot for 400. However, I knew that I was willing to spend 500CNY and that's what I did, so I don't feel too bad about the whole thing.

When I got back to the hotel, I did some research into the Breitlings. It turns out that the ones I was looking at were about the same price as the TAGs that I ended up with (for the real deal, of course), so I probably could have gotten the one that I had originally wanted. I do take some solace in the face that the Rolex and Breitling I picked had the link straps and a colleague had regaled some stories about having problems with the strap on his watch a couple of days previous. The watches I ended up with have rubber and leather straps, so that's at least one less thing to go wrong with them. :)

So, I ended up buying about "$7500" worth of watches for about $70. Like I said before, if I can get a few weeks of entertainment out of them, it'll be worth the money.

EA 84 A7 52 30 CC 92 A6 6D FD B8 1D F5 D5 6D 06 FTW!

As a self-professed geek, I spend lots of time on geek websites. In particular, I try to read slashdot every day. Sure, it's a haven for fanboyz and zealots, but reading through the comments can be kind of funny some times.

Anyway, today they had a posting about an article from "Freedom to Tinker" about owning your own 128-bit integer. The idea is that they will generate a 128-bit number for you and use it to encrypt a copyrighted haiku that they deliver to you. By doing this, apparently the number then falls under the DMCA. As such, if some organization (say MPAA or RIAA) tries to use the number, which could be used to decrypt the haiku without my permission, I can release the hounds.

So, here's my number - EA 84 A7 52 30 CC 92 A6 6D FD B8 1D F5 D5 6D 06.

Some people have waaaaaay too much time on their hands. And I just love it!

- Mike