Negotiating in China
Negotiating for freshwater pearls in China has very unique characteristics. One needs not only to care about the size, color and quality, but also, and increasingly so about strand length and pearl size. "Standard" lengths are becoming shorter, and "standard" sizes becoming smaller than stated in the market. To overcome this, careful negotiations have to be done (in Chinese, of course!) and one's own standards set and asked for (7-8mm means 7-8mm, and not 6.8-7.8mm; 16 inches does not mean 15.5 inches)!