Sunday we headed out to find Pearl City. A little background here (warning: educational material); Suzhou is well known throughout China as the place for Silk and Pearls. Suzhou is in the area that is one of the largest producers of freshwater pearls in the world. People come from all over and purchase pearls and/or silk products in Suzhou due to the quality of those items found here. So, with a few Westerners here that will be heading back home in a few weeks, they all wanted to go see Pearl City. We obtained the name of a vendor there from one of our front office co-workers, Eva. From an expat standpoint, Eva is the person that you cannot do without. I haven’t found anything yet that she cannot help with.
So, we get the Chateau personnel to write up directions to Pearl City and hop into 2 cabs to take the drive. It was expected to be a long drive so we were anticipating around 80 RMB for the cab ride. To our surprise, within 15 minutes the cabs were stopped and we hopped out. Stephan (our French-Canadian co-worker) looked around and says it doesn’t look right. At first glance, it certainly doesn’t look very promising with all kinds of “stuff” out for sale but nothing that evenly remotely looks like pearls or a jewelry area. We suspect we aren’t in the right place but we decide to take a look around anyhow and see what is there. It’s one of those things, it may be wrong but it still looks interesting so let’s take a little bit of time to see what is there. As we walk in, we know for sure it’s not the right spot. The building is a maze of hallways with very small shops all around, each numbered and displaying their wares out for everyone to see. You walk 20 – 30 feet and there’s an intersection where you can turn and go down another hall similarly lined, then another intersection providing 3 more options for where to go and so on. Just about everything was being sold on the first floor, fishing gear, cleaning supplies, toys, shoes, kids stuff, etc. It was very strange, there were stalls that were side-by-side selling the same stuff and seemingly in competition with each other. People stared at us a lot, 6 Westerners walking through the maze just looking at all the stuff. One the 2nd and 3rd floors were clothes and shoes, I believe it was all local brands since I didn’t see any brands I recognized. It was odd because no one ever tried to get us to come in and “looka-looka”, which seems to always happen wherever we go and are near the vendors. In this place, they stared and watched us walk by. Perhaps they knew we were lost or something (although we tried to act like we knew what we were doing). Where we were is called “Small Merchandise City”…..no really. Everything here is city, Electronic City, Furniture City, Bicycle City and so on. It seems if you want to purchase something you can ask them where _____ City is and you stand a 50/50 chance of having them tell you where it is located. It’s very odd but also a punch line for the expats (imagine that, me making a joke of something…..”Hey, do you know where I can find some good coffee? Did you try Coffee City?”).
So we know we’re wrong now but what to do, do we go back to the Chateau and start over, do we try to get there from here (wherever here is), or do we continue to walk around this area (we’re like Star Trek…to boldly go where we have not gone before)? We ask a security guard about getting a cab and he takes us to the “black cabs” which are run by individuals and don’t have any kind of rates or meters. No fap-e-ow (I know the spelling is wrong, this is a pronunciation for the taxi receipt) available. We indicate we need a standard cab and so we head to the street to flag down a taxi. Stephan gets on the phone with Hubba (our contact at Pearl City….note city again) to have him tell the cab driver how to get us to him (but if you don’t know where you are how do you know where you are going?). So we flag down a cab and Alan, Cecelia and Brossie sit in the cab and block traffic while the cabbie talks to Hubba. Horns are honking and they’re not looking real comfortable in the cab but they wait for the conversation to end. In the meantime, Mathieu and I get accosted to get into one of the black cabs. We keep giving them the “No” wave but they continue to bug us. So we flag down a second cab and hop in and wait for the phone conversation to end. Stephan gets his phone back and it’s “follow that cab” while our driver talks to Hubba. We take a drive out into the country and within 15 minutes we arrive at Pearl and Gem City. This time we know it’s right from the signs and stuff outside of the buildings. Hubba is out on the front steps waiting for us to arrive.
We meet Hubba and he takes us into his store and to the back room to watch them open an oyster and collect the freshwater pearls. His father opens the shell and we watch him pull out a bunch of pearls of different quality levels but it’s not one pearl per oyster, that’s only for the sea water pearls. We learn all about pearls, he shows us the different styles, shapes, colors and quality levels of pearls. Pearls range from A to AAAA which is the highest quality. Black freshwater pearls are dyed and not natural color; the natural colors are white, pink and purple. Only the Tahiti pearls are naturally black and are saltwater pearls making them more expensive. We learn a lot about pearls and how to tell real from fake pearls. He offers us a 10-to-1 money back guarantee if we find that the pearls we buy from him are anything less than what he tells us they are. He gives us his “friend” price since we know Eva and we ask a ton of questions about the pearls, price, etc. Everytime we ask to see something else, AAA to compare to a AAAA string, he pulls out more strands for us to compare. It was a really interesting experience. When purchasing, we could point out the string we wanted from the collection on the table and they would take it to the next room to string it and attach the clasp. The prices ranged from below 100 RMB to over 1000 RMB for the black Tahiti pearl necklaces. Depending on the size, shape and quality, the price would vary dramatically but none really looked like junk jewelry. He had other jewelry there made from oyster shells and stuff that we looked at, so they pretty much used the whole oyster when they collected the pearls. We were given bottles of water, chewing gum and really everyone spent a lot of time with us to show us how things were done. They would tie knots between each pearl on a strand to make it stronger and also prevent the loss of all the pearls if the strand broke (not like the movies where the pearls all fall from the necklace….I know, things in movies aren’t real, it’s tough to imagine). There was never any pressure to buy (you like-a, made in China, best-a price) that came from Hubba. He took his time and allowed us to pick and choose what we wanted or if we wanted. When someone wanted to buy, he asked them to pick out the strand, the clasp type and length and he just handed it off to an assistant to go and put it together on the spot (made to order pearls). I wanted the teardrop Tahiti pearl pendant so I was given a selection of the pearls and I chose the one I liked best. He went ahead and drilled a hole into it while I sat there and watched and then watch him attach it to the pendant top and then on the chain. By local standards, this was probably very expensive jewelry but for us it did not seem to be very expensive. Stephan had been here before and was the experienced pearl shopper and indicated that Hubba’s prices were very reasonable and his quality was better than most of the others. So we made our purchases and said goodbye to Hubba for the moment. We wanted to walk around and see some of the other shops on the second floor which were more jade and other gems. Hubba indicated that he would call to get us a taxi to return home to the Chateau since we were outside of the normal routes for the Suzhou taxis. We walked around the second floor and looked but most of us were tapped out and had no more money to spend. (Editor’s note: the lack of availability here in China to use credit cards means everything is on a cash basis. On the one hand it prevents people from spending money they don’t have [hello “stimulus package”] and on the other hand it requires you to carry a lot of cash with you at all times. Since the largest denomination is 100 yuan, making some purchases means that you’ve got to fill the wallet like George Costanza and hope it doesn’t burst). We didn’t see much that interested us with the second floor but we were tired and so we headed down for the cab ride home.
Again, the hospitality of the Chinese people is clearly on display. We cannot find our own cab so Hubba offers to help us get a cab. There weren’t any normal cabs with receipts so we would need to take a “black” cab (in this case it means a non-registered cab and it isn’t the same as the black cabs that I took from the airport). Hubba spoke with the driver and negotiated a rate for the trip and saw us off. Halfway home, he called and indicated to us not to pay more than the agreed upon fare and if the cabbie decided to try and up the price to contact him back and he would speak with the driver. The driver took his time getting back, a nice relaxing trip to sit and ponder the day’s events. All-in-all, a very good day; we experienced a new place and learned a lot about pearls. I know we’ll be going back and when we do, we’re going to find Hubba. Don't forget to review the photo link to see the photos of the adventure.
So, we get the Chateau personnel to write up directions to Pearl City and hop into 2 cabs to take the drive. It was expected to be a long drive so we were anticipating around 80 RMB for the cab ride. To our surprise, within 15 minutes the cabs were stopped and we hopped out. Stephan (our French-Canadian co-worker) looked around and says it doesn’t look right. At first glance, it certainly doesn’t look very promising with all kinds of “stuff” out for sale but nothing that evenly remotely looks like pearls or a jewelry area. We suspect we aren’t in the right place but we decide to take a look around anyhow and see what is there. It’s one of those things, it may be wrong but it still looks interesting so let’s take a little bit of time to see what is there. As we walk in, we know for sure it’s not the right spot. The building is a maze of hallways with very small shops all around, each numbered and displaying their wares out for everyone to see. You walk 20 – 30 feet and there’s an intersection where you can turn and go down another hall similarly lined, then another intersection providing 3 more options for where to go and so on. Just about everything was being sold on the first floor, fishing gear, cleaning supplies, toys, shoes, kids stuff, etc. It was very strange, there were stalls that were side-by-side selling the same stuff and seemingly in competition with each other. People stared at us a lot, 6 Westerners walking through the maze just looking at all the stuff. One the 2nd and 3rd floors were clothes and shoes, I believe it was all local brands since I didn’t see any brands I recognized. It was odd because no one ever tried to get us to come in and “looka-looka”, which seems to always happen wherever we go and are near the vendors. In this place, they stared and watched us walk by. Perhaps they knew we were lost or something (although we tried to act like we knew what we were doing). Where we were is called “Small Merchandise City”…..no really. Everything here is city, Electronic City, Furniture City, Bicycle City and so on. It seems if you want to purchase something you can ask them where _____ City is and you stand a 50/50 chance of having them tell you where it is located. It’s very odd but also a punch line for the expats (imagine that, me making a joke of something…..”Hey, do you know where I can find some good coffee? Did you try Coffee City?”).
So we know we’re wrong now but what to do, do we go back to the Chateau and start over, do we try to get there from here (wherever here is), or do we continue to walk around this area (we’re like Star Trek…to boldly go where we have not gone before)? We ask a security guard about getting a cab and he takes us to the “black cabs” which are run by individuals and don’t have any kind of rates or meters. No fap-e-ow (I know the spelling is wrong, this is a pronunciation for the taxi receipt) available. We indicate we need a standard cab and so we head to the street to flag down a taxi. Stephan gets on the phone with Hubba (our contact at Pearl City….note city again) to have him tell the cab driver how to get us to him (but if you don’t know where you are how do you know where you are going?). So we flag down a cab and Alan, Cecelia and Brossie sit in the cab and block traffic while the cabbie talks to Hubba. Horns are honking and they’re not looking real comfortable in the cab but they wait for the conversation to end. In the meantime, Mathieu and I get accosted to get into one of the black cabs. We keep giving them the “No” wave but they continue to bug us. So we flag down a second cab and hop in and wait for the phone conversation to end. Stephan gets his phone back and it’s “follow that cab” while our driver talks to Hubba. We take a drive out into the country and within 15 minutes we arrive at Pearl and Gem City. This time we know it’s right from the signs and stuff outside of the buildings. Hubba is out on the front steps waiting for us to arrive.
We meet Hubba and he takes us into his store and to the back room to watch them open an oyster and collect the freshwater pearls. His father opens the shell and we watch him pull out a bunch of pearls of different quality levels but it’s not one pearl per oyster, that’s only for the sea water pearls. We learn all about pearls, he shows us the different styles, shapes, colors and quality levels of pearls. Pearls range from A to AAAA which is the highest quality. Black freshwater pearls are dyed and not natural color; the natural colors are white, pink and purple. Only the Tahiti pearls are naturally black and are saltwater pearls making them more expensive. We learn a lot about pearls and how to tell real from fake pearls. He offers us a 10-to-1 money back guarantee if we find that the pearls we buy from him are anything less than what he tells us they are. He gives us his “friend” price since we know Eva and we ask a ton of questions about the pearls, price, etc. Everytime we ask to see something else, AAA to compare to a AAAA string, he pulls out more strands for us to compare. It was a really interesting experience. When purchasing, we could point out the string we wanted from the collection on the table and they would take it to the next room to string it and attach the clasp. The prices ranged from below 100 RMB to over 1000 RMB for the black Tahiti pearl necklaces. Depending on the size, shape and quality, the price would vary dramatically but none really looked like junk jewelry. He had other jewelry there made from oyster shells and stuff that we looked at, so they pretty much used the whole oyster when they collected the pearls. We were given bottles of water, chewing gum and really everyone spent a lot of time with us to show us how things were done. They would tie knots between each pearl on a strand to make it stronger and also prevent the loss of all the pearls if the strand broke (not like the movies where the pearls all fall from the necklace….I know, things in movies aren’t real, it’s tough to imagine). There was never any pressure to buy (you like-a, made in China, best-a price) that came from Hubba. He took his time and allowed us to pick and choose what we wanted or if we wanted. When someone wanted to buy, he asked them to pick out the strand, the clasp type and length and he just handed it off to an assistant to go and put it together on the spot (made to order pearls). I wanted the teardrop Tahiti pearl pendant so I was given a selection of the pearls and I chose the one I liked best. He went ahead and drilled a hole into it while I sat there and watched and then watch him attach it to the pendant top and then on the chain. By local standards, this was probably very expensive jewelry but for us it did not seem to be very expensive. Stephan had been here before and was the experienced pearl shopper and indicated that Hubba’s prices were very reasonable and his quality was better than most of the others. So we made our purchases and said goodbye to Hubba for the moment. We wanted to walk around and see some of the other shops on the second floor which were more jade and other gems. Hubba indicated that he would call to get us a taxi to return home to the Chateau since we were outside of the normal routes for the Suzhou taxis. We walked around the second floor and looked but most of us were tapped out and had no more money to spend. (Editor’s note: the lack of availability here in China to use credit cards means everything is on a cash basis. On the one hand it prevents people from spending money they don’t have [hello “stimulus package”] and on the other hand it requires you to carry a lot of cash with you at all times. Since the largest denomination is 100 yuan, making some purchases means that you’ve got to fill the wallet like George Costanza and hope it doesn’t burst). We didn’t see much that interested us with the second floor but we were tired and so we headed down for the cab ride home.
Again, the hospitality of the Chinese people is clearly on display. We cannot find our own cab so Hubba offers to help us get a cab. There weren’t any normal cabs with receipts so we would need to take a “black” cab (in this case it means a non-registered cab and it isn’t the same as the black cabs that I took from the airport). Hubba spoke with the driver and negotiated a rate for the trip and saw us off. Halfway home, he called and indicated to us not to pay more than the agreed upon fare and if the cabbie decided to try and up the price to contact him back and he would speak with the driver. The driver took his time getting back, a nice relaxing trip to sit and ponder the day’s events. All-in-all, a very good day; we experienced a new place and learned a lot about pearls. I know we’ll be going back and when we do, we’re going to find Hubba. Don't forget to review the photo link to see the photos of the adventure.
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2 comments:
The blogs are great and I learned a lot about pearls. I always thought that there was only one pearl per oyster, but that is salt water oysters only. But the ones that you were talking about were freshwater.I never realized that there was a differnce. The pictures are great and very enjoyable. Thanks for the great work. Love Barbara & Jim.
I just saw Andrwe Zimmern eating Chinese pearls on TV. They pulverized the freshwater pearls, mixed with water and ate as a paste to improve the complexion.
Bon Apetit!
Jim
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