S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G

That's the word. It's amazing here, but also in some ways confusing. While I was able to buy a custom tailored suit for $115, it's almost impossible to get a watch for less than $50. I don't get it. I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong, but there seems to be no scale of proportions here.

About the suit. I'm supposed to pick it up today. Navy blue with a jacquard stripe, two buttons, pleated and cuffed pants. Looks great, and I could use another suit anyway. Especially if I will one day be a prof. And with prices that cheap, I figured it was OK. :-)

Pearls are also very cheap, which I've already detailed. However, I was proud to haggle a woman down to $45 for a pair of Timberland knock offs yesterday. She complained she couldn't eat with that price. What amazes me is that she started with a price of 800 yuan ($117), immediately offered me the friend discount 650 yuan ($95.50). I told her that was too much. I offered her 300 yuan. She came back with 500. I stuck to my guns and was about to walk away when she offered a compromise of 310 ($45). I paid it. Not a bad deal, but they are knock offs. I could probably get them in New York for about $30. However, I need a pair of walking shoes for this city so I figured it was worth the price.

Besides shopping I didn't do much yesterday, I felt it was best to get some rest. Our work starts today and I needed to make sure jet lag was mostly over. I think it is. It's not been terrible really. I've just needed a nap everyday at about 6:30 p.m. Which is strangely 5:30 a.m. yesterday in Wisconsin. I don't understand why I would need a nap when I would normally be getting out of bed, but that is the case.

Art and forgery? When in New York a few years ago Steve and I saw a few paintings in a bar. They were reportedly by a Beijing artist Yue Minjun. I believe they were asking $3000. They were great paintings and I wished then that we could have bought one. Alas, no. Now I am in Beijing, it's a few years later, and I found two Yue Minjun paintings in a frame shop near my apartment. She wants $175 each for them. Initially I was very excited. I thought, wow the painting is already worth way more than that. However, I decided to do some research to see if I could find a web image, or find an approximate value. Well, I think I might be dealing with a forgery.

A 5 minute google search revealed that Minjun's work is incredibly valuable. His most recent sale was a painting called "Execution" and it fetched almost $3 Million. If these are real Minjun's they are probably worth somewhere in the $200,000-300,000 range. My concern really is not that they could be lost in a gallery somewhere, but that China is relatively notorious for art forgery. This means I have to do some research. I am going to try to find a Minjun in a gallery or museum here so I can compare brushstrokes, color choice, canvas material, signature, etc. In the end it may be worth talking her down to $100 and owning a potentially fake Minjun. What if it's real? (see Who the Fuck is Jackson Pollock?).

Today I am going to seek out one of the many temples in Beijing and do some exploring. Then it is back to the apartment for a meeting in the late afternoon. Oh, and I have to have that suit fitted.

Yesterday's observations:

1) A popular chinese beverage is corn juice. I saw some in the store and asked our chinese assistant Maisie (pronounced like Macy's) what it was. She said, "Oh, I love corn juice. I am also big fan of corn yogurt." You could feel the Americans at the table cringe. I'll pick up a bottle and report back.

2) Steak flavored Ruffles are surprisingly good. I saw them and just had to try them. I mean, Steak flavor. What could be bad about that.

3) There is a lot of standing around here. Amazingly this is an incredibly service oriented place. The door person seemed upset the other day when I insisted on carrying my own groceries. When you go to a store you are followed by an employee. Not that they are worried you might steal something, but they want to be there to answer your questions and help you.

Speaking of door people, we are not allowed to open the door ourselves. When we approach the front door there is someone there to open it and say, "Ni hao" (hello). He then lets it close and runs ahead to get the next door for us. I'm surprised he doesn't follow us and press the elevator button for us.

An amusing observation yesterday. When I was at the market to have my suit fitted, I went down to another level to look at the aforementioned shoes. As soon as I stepped off the escalator a call went through the room. It reminded me of the seagulls in Finding Nemo as they would all call, "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" As I stepped off the escalator one person called, "Excuse me, Sir, would you like to buy a belts?" this created an increasing cacophony of calls for a belts, a wallets, a shoes, a tie... you get the picture. It's amazing being so popular.