Oh life... how you fuck me over. In the past seven months that I have been in China (October 8th was the seventh anniversary!!!) I have not really been cheated by anyone knowingly. Usually I can tell when something is a scam... but I have noticed that EVEN in China, these people find UNTHINKABLE ways to cheat you. It could be the simplest thing... something you would not expect, and that is how they get you! There is no 30 or 90 day return policy here, no way to complain (one because I don't speak Chinese, and two, because the whole point of selling is to cheat you out of your money). As Audre found out by buying headphones in a store for about 40Yuan... They obviously broke and what happened? She could return them within ten days of the purchase, OR pay about half the price of the headphones for ANOTHER pair (if she wanted to return them more than 10 days after) which would likely break again. Or Serena who bought a camera for pretty much the US price... which also broke about a month later. Or there were times when I thought I was getting a good deal on something because I saw it more expensive in another store, but then hmm... a part of that something is missing somehow... so actually I just ended up not getting cheated but also not winning. Fu**ing China.
Anyway, yesterday Monika and I went shopping to Guangzhou Railway Station... usual spot for shoes and some other random things. I didn't find the shoes I wanted and some other ones were too expensive I thought, so I didn't get anything. I was on the way to the bus when I noticed the fruit prices at the bus station were really low (they usually are). I decided to buy 10 kiwis for 10Yuan and 40 lychees, also for 10Yuan. I was picking out kiwis and the vendor woman helped me pick out a few. The she tied my bag and double bagged it. Next to her was a lady selling lychees so I also wanted to buy some. I counted the ones I put in my bag and she also put a few in for me... 38. It was supposed to be 40 so I said 39 by accident and she put one more in for me, oh well... one lychee won't make a difference I thought. The she tied my bag, double bagged it and I got my money. I only had a 100 bill, so I have it to her. Then that bitch had the audacity to give me back seven tens instead of 8. So I told her and she snuck a ten out of the money I gave her and gave me another 10, still leaving me with 7 tens. So I started counting and she pulled the money away from me and actually gave me a 50, a 20, and a 10. Mission accomplished, or so I thought I took my money and left, reminding myself to count the lychees at home to see if they ripped me off. Well, well, well, to my surprise I counted 24 lychees instead of 40 and 8 kiwis instead of 10. I wonder how that happened. I'm assuming they both switched the bags with previously packed bags when I was counting my money...Pride is hurt majorly :( So next week, I am going to come up with a scheme to get these tricks back.
Lily told me there are two ways these vendorse try to scam everyone and anyone. One way is when they help you pick out fruit, they actually put the fruit in another bag, and not yours, so you end up only with the fruit YOU pick out, which is less than the amount you're supposed to get. Number two is while you're getting your money, they switch your full bag with a bag they previously fill themselves (with less and worse fruit). Oh how did I LET them fool me like this?!?!?! UGHHHHHHHH!!! So one time Lily was supposed to buy 20 mangosteen for 20Yuan. She told me she knew about their "trickery" so she told the lady "Don't touch the fruit, I can get them myself, and I will hold the bag" and the woman responded, "Well if that is the case, then you can only have 15 fruit, and not 20". So it seems that they expect to rip EVERYONE off. Finally, once I was leaving Katia's apartment and going to the bus and I saw a man knock over a woman's fruit stand while yelling and yelling at her. I thought, "What a jerk, blah blah" but now I totally understand! What biatches... if I knew, I also would have knocked their stand over!
On another note, the first Chinese man ever won the Nobel Peace Prize. His name is Liu Xiaobo, a political dissident, and he is being imprisoned somewhere in the northeast of China for trying to peacefully bring democracy into China. His wife is also supposedly under house arrest now, due to her husband's award. I am not an expert on this subject, so please read the newspaper on this subject. So interesting!!! Censorship and communism at it's best.
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