China Day 3: Adventures in the Black Market

Accompanied by my parents, we were headed to a shopping mall, when my mother was intercepted by a tout for a black market. Suddenly, our party had changed direction, and we were led through back alleys and narrow streets to what looked like a rather large apartment complex in the French Concession.

There was a courtyard in the complex, where several people appeared to be doing absolutely nothing: men smoked cigarettes on lawn chairs, while young girls idly lazed. It turned out that all of these people were part of the counterfeiting operation, some acting as lookouts, others as couriers.

We were led to the door of someone's apartment, and shown the way in, only to find that the entire apartment had been gutted, and the innards replaced with a tiny retail space stuffed with fake Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Coach merchandise.

I inspected the Vuitton bags, and found them to be of considerably quality, except for one detail.

"Hey mom, the leather accents on these Louis Vuitton bags are way too light in color."

My mom replied, "That's how the current Vuitton line looks."

Owned.

My father pointed out the door to the apartment - it was made out of steel, with SEVEN deadbolts. My dad explained that the door was designed to protect the store against police raids.

Meanwhile, my mom and the vendor were raising their voices at each other, speaking Mandarin rapidly, engaging in a heated piece of Haggling Theater.

When my mom asked to see additional Coach bags, a young girl was sent out by bicycle.

"This girl is going to the warehouse to get more bags," my dad said.

The girl laughed, and said, "Yes."

After the bags arrived, my mom threatened to leave the store a few times, while the vendor wrapped up purses and pushed them at her. Finally, the transaction was resolved, and we were led from one fake apartment into another, walking through someone's home and past their kitchen during the journey. The building itself was reminiscent of something you would see in the movie Children of Men.

As we walked through the complex, I realized that the ENTIRE APARTMENT COMPLEX had been gutted. Secret doors were opened, revealing hidden retail spaces in every apartment. The landlord, the tenants, they were all in on the operation.

I asked my father what would happen if the police showed up. He told me that the counterfeiters would immediately go into total lockdown, securing all the doors, and then leading the customers out a secret exit.

Later, we eventually visited a more mainstream knockoff mall, and my brother Jon and I attempted to haggle with a vendor over a knockoff Diesel messenger bag. The vendor quoted us 120 RMB (about $15 US), and we suggested 45. She laughed at us, and said, "No discount." She then explained in broken English that the bag was 300 RMB to begin with (a complete lie), and that she could not possibly go any lower.

I proceeded to take a kleenex out of my backpack, and wipe away my feigned tears, telling her how much she was breaking my heart. She laughed again, then came down to 100. My brother and I turned away, and held a brief conference. I told Jon she could definitely go down to 80, at which point, the vendor, who had been eavesdropping the whole time, said, "No way."

Finally, I explained to the vendor that the number eight was good luck in China, so she should give us the bag for 80. She countered by saying that 88 would be doubly lucky. We couldn't argue with that logic, so we then went to go grab my mom, who then promptly vetoed the bag on the grounds that one shouldn't wear any merchandise with Chairman Mao on it.

I've never worked harder to save $4 in my life.