Friday, February 25, 2011

Bargaining at Leathertown- Wednesday February 23rd

Wow it was an early start to a very busy day! Met up with Val at the gate of the apartment complex to walk down to Singa Plaza where the bus was picking us up to take us to "Leathertown"

Haining China Leather Town

  Set up in 1994, the Haining China Leather Town has grown into a special leather market with the largest size and greatest influence in China. In 2007, it started to undertake reconstruction in order to cover the China Jeans Town, the Raw and Assisting Materials Market, the Shoes Square, the Business Complex, the Street of Food and Drink, the Electronic Games Town, the Relaxation Square, and large-sized underground parking. By the end of December 2007, the raw materials, jeans and shoes markets went into service. Construction was also completed for the name-brands showroom, business complex and integrated service buildings


It was a two hour bus ride. So, we departed at 8:30 and arrived at about 10:45 (we did stop off at a "rest stop" area for a bathroom break)Wish I would have had my camera handy for that! That's another topic of discussion I will leave for a later date. You just never know what "type" of toilet facilities you will encounter....Oh, the benefits of living and traveling in China!! :)
So, the group of about twenty of us disembarked the bus and hit the ground running...shop till you drop!!! I ended up hanging with Susanna(a Finnish gal) and Val(my English neighbor). We had a blast!! The bargaining and haggling with the vendors was soooo much fun! Susanna is one tough haggler, and I must say...I was pretty good too! Val kept saying she was NEVER going shopping again unless she had one of us with her!! :) We got some GREAT deals! I got a couple of nice, big leather handbags, a leather wallet, and a business card holder for all of $75.00! My "booty" I got is here:
****The chocolate brown one converts to a backpack as well! Pretty cool actually. Love my patterned one too. That was a great bargain...got that for over 1/2 off the original price they were asking! SCORE!!

We had a great time. We ate our "sack lunches" at a food court area, to the many stares of people walking by and scoping out what we were eating. A couple of people even stood by the table and watched for a couple of minutes! It was pretty entertaining, and I'm sure the "interlopers" felt the same way. Glad we could accommodate you. Move along people...nothing to see here!! LOL!
It was fun to go to some of the clothing areas as well. Holding up a shirt marked XXXXL...thinking "hmmmm... this is a size Medium back home in the USA!" Seriously, this culture is so tiny in stature! I feel like an Amazon woman standing by some of these Chinese women (and men for that matter!)
We stayed until 3:00 and boarded the bus back to Suzhou. We were going to catch a taxi back to the apartment complex...but as we were walking back, we realized we were over 1/2 way back...so what's the sense of catching a taxi? I said goodbye to my walking companions and headed to the apartment. Mark is gone on a business trip to Beijing overnight..so I am on my own for the evening. I decided to ordered Indian food in...another benefit to living in Suzhou. They have a company called "Sherpa's" that delivers food to your door from a selection of over 28 restaurants in the city for a mere 30 RMB ($4.61). So...that's what I did. I was pretty tired from all the walking and shopping. It was an early night for me...in bed by 10:00 and off to "Dreamland" What a fun day!!

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