Christmas Eve

I found rocks! Yeah...can you believe it? I found a rock market! On Christmas Eve, I had a few last minute errands to run before Christmas and went to one of the major shopping markets (YuYuan Gardens). I was browsing along one of the side streets and went into a shop to look around. I saw a brass dragon I really liked that had a real jade ball in it's claw (which it was holding up). I looked around the store some more and noticed that there were a few rocks on stands. The [male] owner of the shop was there with two younger girls, helping him out. He took extra care with the rocks, so I figured he was the "collector". When I was ready to leave, I was gathering my strength and strategy for the bargaining process to purchase the dragon. One of the girls picked it up and the jade ball slipped out of the claw, fell to the floor and broke clean in half. There was a collective "ahhhh" in the tiny space, loudest from me. The reason I liked this particular dragon was because the jade ball was natural, not synthetic. The owner was a collector, which means he is motivated to use real jade instead of a plastic green ball. He indicated he could get another one and I waited for awhile, hoping he really could. While I was waiting, I picked up the broken ball and inspected the break in it...and sure enough, it was a [lower] quality, but REAL piece of jade...with decent natural color.

Also, while I was waiting, the shop attendants were looking everywhere for another ball and couldn't find one. The owner saw that I was about to leave and he eyed his other collections of stone balls, ie, quartz, rose quartz, etc. He picked one up and turned towards me. He pointed to the pink ball in his hand and told me in halting english, as he placed it in the dragon's claw, that it was pink jade. Ha! I said, "Really? Pink jade? Jade comes in pink?" He nodded and said, "Very rare." HAHAHAHA I bet! After making a very unlady-like sound, I pointed out he was holding rose quartz! You should have seen the look on his face! He had just been caught in a complete and utter bald face lie...and shamed himself in the process. Not good. A moment after this exchange, a "friend" came running up with another jade ball. I took it and examined it very carefully. This jade ball was an unnatural shade of green...a turquoise really. The girl stood there telling me, "Jade all different...no two alike." Got it. However, I have never seen jade that color, which indicated THIS ball was color dyed. I left, hearing them emphatically tell me I was mistaken. But, just as I rounded the corner of their store, I heard the owner say something in curt chinese to the girls...probably telling them I knew a thing or two and to stop trying.

It's not often my background comes in handy. The look on his face was a good Christmas Eve present...to myself. :) :) :)

As I left that store and continued down this particular lane of shops, I noticed that gradually, more and more vendors had rocks in their stores. Hmmmm. Rocks are not particularly common as collection pieces here in China - yet. So, hmmmm. In the process of searching through vendors along this street, a nice Chinese man told me about the market at the end of the lane and asked if I had ever been there. Uh, no. So, [we] made our way to it and it turns out that this market, so close to YuYuan Gardens, is a rock market!!! Wow! You can imagine my surprise and pleasure at discovering this nugget of a market! Granted...it wasn't as clean and organized as some of the ones I have been to...but that made it all the more interesting to look around. There were many wonders I discovered in there.

However, I have to say, going back and purchasing something is NOT something I'm looking forward to in the future. Everything is about bargaining over here. So, that means that you can never get too attached to anything you want to buy. You have to have the ability to walk away if you hope to get a fair price...it's all part of the "dance". I'm so screwed...