Team Five:

We all slept in after a hard night of networking the night before. Today we spent most of the day shopping at the Yu Yuan Gardens and Temple. It was a large network of alleys and courtyards with shops lining all sides. Many of us started the day by looking at cheap shoes; most could be purchased for under $5 after some negotiating. Many of them were what seemed to be name brand shoes, but who knows if any of them really were authentic.

Nick C. and Jimmy S. seemed to have a lucky find when a North Face jacket caught their eyes sticking out of one of the clothing shops. They claim the prices started at RMB 850 and that they were able to negotiate it down to RMB 175. Sounds like they used what Dr. Peach taught them in their negotiations class. It took them 20 minutes, and both seemed extremely happy with their purchase. The two negotiators did not stop there though.

They both tried to purchase some new suitcases, which worked out for Jimmy, but not so well for Nick. From There the two were bombarded with people trying to sell watches. Our classmates made the mistake of giving these watch sellers 2 minutes of their time. The watch sellers decided to take 20 minutes and were even dropping their prices without reason. Too bad they had really poor quality watches or else they might have made a sale.

Another highlight of the day was purchasing some soft serve ice cream for a few RMB. It was an extremely hot day and it was well received. We also saw some stray dogs and some other poorer Chinese people. It was a little sad, and some classmates couldn’t fight the urge to give a few coins to the locals. The streets were not too dirty, and we did see some government workers sweeping streets and cleaning it up. We also saw some dogs getting haircuts and baths. It was a very interesting environment and there were rumors about the whole operation having ties to some type of mafia. No one knows if any these rumors have any truth backing them.

Probably the most memorable story came from a group of classmates that had the opportunity to see a pearl shop. Upon entering the shop, they were treated to a show of the worker opening up an oyster to show us how they extract the pearls and how many pearls are actually in each oyster. The oyster that this group saw had 34 pearls inside and each Cal Poly student in this group received one as a souvenir. After watching this presentation many of the students in the group took advantage of the cheap prices and purchased some pearls as gifts for family members and girlfriends. The pearls seemed very beautiful and seemed to be very cheap. They seemed to be about 20% of what the same necklace would cost in a retail shop in the United States. Some of the more entrepreneurial students toyed with the notion of importing these pearls and selling them in the States. Hopefully they learned enough at Cal Poly to make it successful.

After walking around the Yu Yuan Gardens and Temple we bused over to the Bund, a local shopping and restaurant area. We wanted to get a view of the big city and take a few boat tours, but were disappointed when we found out that there was major construction at the place we were dropped off. So instead we walked to the People’s Square and ate some authentic Chinese food with our hosts Matt and Rich. They told us stories and gave us more insight about China. After Dinner we walked around the People’s Square, looked at shops, took a few pictures, got some ice-cream, and learned more from Matt and Rich. Then we walked back to the bus and took the bus home for the night.