The Stone Forest is pretty much what it sounds like. A big forest… but instead of trees, it has a bunch of really tall stones. While that description leaves something to be desired, it's actually really cool. A few hours outside of Kunming, in Yunnan Province, the stone forest is set up a bit like a national park, so basically you can just wander around, have a picnic, do some hiking, enjoy the weather, etc.
As soon as you walk into the park you are accosted by little old Chinese women offering to dress you in ancient traditional costumes and take your pictures in front of the stones.
Normally I avoid this type of activity as it's a good way to get ripped off, but the costumes were really fun, and I was with someone who speaks really good Chinese so I figured it was a good opportunity to take some crazy photos. The other girls were down, so we had Mallory ask about prices. The woman said 10 RNB for each person (about $1.50 US) for three photos with the three of us in it. Cool.
We confirmed the price. 10 RNB each. For everything. Ok.
By the time we agreed, I was pretty much already dressed in the ridiculous costume, and seconds later the other girls were too. Of course we were then swarmed by Chinese people wanting to take pictures of us. 20 minutes and several thousand pictures later we took off the costumes, paid the women, and received the pictures. 3 happy customers.
Until… we go to leave. Surprise! The sweet little Chinese woman morphs into a monster. It was like watching the Incredible Hulk transform. She starts yelling at Mallory in Chinese. Of course the other girl and I are just super confused at this point – my Chinese sucks.
"MONEYYYYYY!! RWARRRRR!!!!" Hulk Smash. Of course she wanted more money. Now she's claiming there is a "costume fee." She wanted 10 more from each of us.
Uh huh. Sure. So we roll our eyes and try to walk away. This isn't our first Rodeo sweetheart. The Hulk then proceeds to throw a fit and grab Mallory and physically try to drag us back to her station. "MONEYYYYYY!! RWARRRRR!!!!"
The argument went on and the Hulk wouldn't let go of Mal. Tourists were taking pictures of the confrontation. More arguing in Chinese. Now the Hulk only wanted 5 RNB each.
Great. So now we're bargaining on how much we're getting ripped off for. Ohhh China. You almost had me fooled. We actually were about to pay the 10 kwai just so we could go, but then the lady lowered it to 5 and changed the game.
So we conference amongst ourselves. We really didn't want to pay the extra money. It was the principle of the thing.
Finally we just decided we were going to ignore the women and hopefully they would go away. After about two minutes of them listening to our discussion, in English, on what we were going to do that evening when we got back to the hostel, the Hulk transformed back into Bruce Banner, became rational, and walked away, realizing we weren't going to pay.
We walked away without getting ripped off. But it was a good way to get the adrenaline pumping.
Here's what you should take away from this. If you are being hassled in China over money, just ignore them. Pay your fair price and walk away. It's like negotiating with terrorists. Don't do it.
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