The other "Niao Chao" (Bird's Nest)?

That's at least what the famous “Silk Street”, 秀水, called itself with respect to shopping during the Olymic Games (the two characters are a falling tone “xiu” and falling and rising tone “shui;” the second one means “water”). I saw this sign, “Merchant’s Bird Nest,” flashing while visiting the market during the Mid-Autumn Festival and couldn't resist taking the above photo.

The Silk Street market is located beside diplomatic compound and foreign embassy area on the north side of this stretch of the Jianguo Da Jie. The buildings over to the left of Silk Street in the photo above are some of the diplomatic residences.

One can surmise from all the laowai sitting about in that photo, Silk Street's clientele consists mainly of foreign tourists and foreigners living in Beijing. Tourists visiting here will find that this so-called “market” is unlike any kind of store in the West. It consists of literally hundreds of small stands—the individual shopkeepers lease space in the market building.

These people sell everything from clothing and apparel and foot ware to jade, pearls, tea sets, and small consumer electronic goods. While the place is always crowded, it’s not nearly as jam packed as the Xidan, 西单, in West Beijing; that market's customers are almost entirely Chinese (both “xi” and “dan” are flat tones). As one walks past Silk Street's stalls, many of the shopkeepers will literally grab you and say, “Lookie, lookie!”

Of course you can buy lots of things for a fraction of what they'd cost in North America or Europe. However, you need to be a hard bargainer, particularly if you're a laowai. The shopkeepers routinely charge extra high prices for us folks, figuring that we're rich and can pay them.

In fact, during a 2007 National Day Holiday visit to Silk Street, one of the merchants told me, “You can have these shirts for 14 RMB ($2-3 at the current Dollar-RMB exchange rate), business is really terrible right now.” Since I needed a couple of short-sleeved dress shirts to wear to work during Beijing’s stifling hot summers, I was only too happy to purchase them. Those kind of prices are the ones you can get at the Ya (rising tone) Shua (flat tone) market (牙刷), which is located at the south end of the Beijing’s so called “Bar Street,” the 三里屯 (flat tone “san”, falling and rising tone “li,” and rising tone “tun”). After being offered this price, I was immediately told not to repeat it to any of the other laowai shoppers.

Thus when my mother visited me in Beijing in May of 2007 and wanted to do some shopping at Silk Street, I had two Erwai students, one of whom was said by all her classmates to be a champion bargainer, go with her. These young ladies ensured that my mum wasn't ripped off by the rapacious 老板 (falling and rising tone “lao” and “ban”), which can be translated as both “boss” and “shopkeeper” into English.

One person who really fell in love with Silk Street, particularly its inexpensive ties, was Rupert Murdoch. One wonders, was he “fit to be tied” on the he first visited Silk Street?! That's at least what Bruce Dover says in a ripping yarn he wrote about this Aussie’s adventures or, better put misadventures in China entitled, RUPERT MURDOCH'S CHINA ADVENTURES: HOW THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL MOGUL LOST A FORTUNE AND FOUND A WIFE.

Dover worked for Murdoch during his ill-fated efforts to break into China's media market, so this is truly an insider's account of what was a long-running debacle, lasting more than a decade. While Murdoch found he could easily get his way with Western Governments by a combination of schmooze, threats, and manipulation, he found that dealing with the Chinese Government was an entirely different kettle of fish.

I'd have to say, given his role in utterly debasing TV news journalism in the US through that appalling and tabloid Fox News Channel, that this monster got his just desserts, comeuppance, call what you may, in the Middle Kingdom. I should note, in the interest of being “fair and balanced”, that Fox's British counterpart, Sky News, isn't all that bad and is a genuine and serious news network. Oh yes, the Chinese name for Fox News is 福克斯, or a rising tone “fu”, falling tone “ke”, and flat tone “si.”

However, Murdoch did find a new wife here, Deng Wendi, who's several decades younger than he is. The former's Chinese name in characters is 邓文迪—the tones in this name are falling, rising, rising—while Murdoch's name is transliterated as 默多克, or “mo” (falling tone), “duo” (first tone), and “ke” (falling). Ironically, that first character means “silent” in Chinese, and Murdoch has spent his life being anything but silent.

I include two photos of the charming couple. Two former Erwai students I had lunch with on November 16th told me that Chinese people despise Deng Wendi, believe that she is a gold digger, and find her quite unattractive to boot. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'll leave it to me readers to judge for themselves Deng's looks after looking at the photos.

I heard somewhere that they have a huge, luxury traditional style Siheyuan Courtyard House. The Chinese word for these classic Beijing dwellings is 四合院, or a falling tone “si,” rising tone “he”, and rising tone “yuan”. Murdoch's China digs are located around Hou Hai. Hou hai, 后海 (falling tone “hou” and a falling and rising tone “hai”) is the city’s hottest new entertainment and bar district, plus is an exclusive residential neighborhood. It's located north of the Forbidden City and Jingshan and Beihai Parks. I certainly plan on doing some future posts about this area.

Getting back to Silk Street, like the rest of Beijing, this place has changed radically over the past decade. Up through the late 1990s, it was an outdoor market. The structure shown in this post's photographs is less than a decade old. Since most of Silk Street's clientele are well heeled laowai, the bottom floor of the structure boasts a number of cafés, including SPR coffee, Sarpino’s Pizza, O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Shop, and the Flat White Café.

The last place was formerly known as the Café L'Affaire. Even though its Lattes are a bit steep at 32 RMB a cup, the place has good house, techno, and acid jazz music. I thus occasionally go there, as it is a cool place to spend some time people watching. A photo of it is below.