Bargaining in Taiwan and China, what to say

I believe that getting ripped off is a pretty common situation that people face on a daily basis in the east, so knowing a few bargaining phrases would definitely help in the long run.


A rather interesting location to begin your bargaining would be at the night market, night markets in Taiwan would be a place to find the cheapest of all commodities and they're often open until pretty late.


The two characters that represent the act of bargaining is called Traditional Chinese 殺價, Simplified Chinese 杀价 In pinyin (shā jià)


In Chinese the characters literally mean the following: 殺(shā) means to kill and 價(jià) means price.


In reality the characters for "price" is 價錢(jià qián) where "價(jià)" literally broken up means price and "錢(qián)" meaning money.


Some nouns related or synonymous to "price" are:


Traditional 價格(jià gé) / Simplifed 价格(jià gé) = Price
Traditional 價位(jià wèi) / Simplified 价位(jià wèi) = Price
Traditional 價差(jià chā) / Simplified 价差(jià chā) = Price difference


So if you ever go to a night market, you can always try to 殺價(shā jià), since most of the time as foreigners(westerners), Taiwanese or Mainland Chinese merchants will try to raise the price of merchandise at first. It will be a rather interesting feat to cut the price down.


Some more vocabulary that can be applied or used in the price field of things, the phrase to describe something that's too expensive is Traditional Chinese "太貴了"(tài guì le) / Simplified Chinese "太贵了"(tài guì le).


So an example passage would be:


Traditional Chinese:
客戶(kè hù): 請問這個包包多少錢(qǐng wèn zhè ge bāo bāo duō shǎo qián)?
商人(shāng rén): 這個包包500元(zhè ge bāo bāo wǔ bǎi yuán).
客戶(kè hù): 500元太貴了, 可不可以便宜一點? 250 元差不多吧(wǔ bǎi yuán tài guì le, kě bù kě yǐ pián yí yì diǎn, liǎng bǎi wǔ shí yuán chā bù duō ba)?
商人(shāng rén): 250 元太便宜了, 這樣子我們賺不到幾塊錢, 要不然300元吧!(liáng bǎi wǔ shí yuán tài pián yí le, zhè yàng zi wǒ mén zhuàn bú dào jǐ kuài qián, yào bù rán sān bǎi yuán ba!)
客戶(kè hù): 嗯, 300元差不多(en, sān bǎi yuán chā bù duō).
商人(shāng rén): 嗯, 好, 那就 300元(en, nà jìu sān bǎi yuán).
客戶(kè hù): 謝謝!(xiè xie)
商人(shāng rén): 謝謝!(xiè xie)


Simplified Chinese:

客户(kè hù): 请问这个包包多少钱(qǐng wèn zhè ge bāo bāo duō shǎo qián)?
商人(shāng rén): 这个包包500元(zhè ge bāo bāo wǔ bǎi yuán).
客户(kè hù): 500元太贵了, 可不可以便宜一点? 250 元差不多吧(wǔ bǎi yuán tài guì le, kě bù kě yǐ pián yí yì diǎn, liǎng bǎi wǔ shí yuán chā bù duō ba)?
商人(shāng rén): 250 元太便宜了, 这样子我们赚不到几块钱, 要不然300元吧!(liáng bǎi wǔ shí yuán tài pián yí le, zhè yàng zi wǒ mén zhuàn bú dào jǐ kuài qián, yào bù rán sān bǎi yuán ba!)
客户(kè hù): 嗯, 300元差不多(en, sān bǎi yuán chā bù duō).
商人(shāng rén): 嗯, 好, 那就 300元(en, nà jìu sān bǎi yuán).
客户(kè hù): 谢谢!(xiè xie)
商人(shāng rén): 谢谢!(xiè xie)



English:
Customer: Excuse me, how much is this bag?
Merchant: This bag costs NT$500
Customer: NT$500 is too expensive, can't it be cheaper? How about NT$250
Merchant: NT$250 is too cheap, I won't be making much out of it, how about NT$300?
Customer: OK, NT$300 sounds acceptable.
Merchant: OK, then let it be NT$300
Customer: Thank you!
Merchant: Thank you!