Pearl Market: Buying Glasses, Kimonos, Necklaces, Maps, Head Scratchers, DVD’s, Etc.

Last week we went to the Pearl Market. It takes over an hour on the Beijing metro from our home. There is an official Pearl Market, which is a huge many storied building and is pretty overwhelming.  The minute that you enter, marketeers harangue you with sales pitches.  I have been in more aggressive markets in other parts of the world, where, at times, I have been physically detained by sellers, but it still is unpleasant and off-putting. However, there is also a large building behind the official Pearl Market. I am not sure what it is called, maybe the “unofficial Pearl Market”, but what a delightful place. It is five floors of beautiful jade, pearl, gold jewelry, brand name clothes, shoes, souvenir items, glasses, and on and on. During the hour we spent there, we saw about 10 other people buying items!.... I am not underestimating.

Rick walked in and ordered a pair of bifocal glasses. They would scan your current pair if you wanted and duplicate. He picked out frames and was told that 3 days later they would DELIVER THE GLASSES TO HIS APARTMENT! (Usually we would have had to go the hour and a half back to pick them up, but they were embarrassed about not having our friend’s glasses ready which were ordered the week before and thus were home delivering.) It cost about $70. The glasses are on his face and working fine.

I got satiny kimonos, and children’s cipao traditional dresses for $5. I got the DVD’s for The Shape of Water and The Post for about $1.50. Nice tourist items for about the same price (foldable baskets, fans, head scratchers, etc.). We got 3 very nice cotton wall hangings with stylized maps of the world for about $7. Friends got cute tennis shoes and Under Armour and Patagonia polo shirts for $20. Handmade shell necklaces for $1 to $5, not to mention jade and pearls if I had been interested.

Now some of these items were beautifully displayed in mall type settings. Others were in obscure hidey-holes that had no electricity and we looked at the items with flashlights. (That was interesting. We assumed it was an attempt to put these small kiosks out of business?) I am not looking too deeply into legal issues for any of this, but part of life overseas.