10/27   I'd like to go to China one day but I heard that people are assholes
        there. For example, everything has a 3-tier pricing. If you're
        a Caucasian, you get a special bi-ren price. If you're an outsider
        like Taiwanese, Singaporean, Mayasian, etc, you get a special
        hua-chiaw price. If you're a mainlander, you get the original
        price. There are exceptions of course (e.g. Caucasian who speaks
        fluent Mandarin gets the hua-chiaw price). Does anyone have
        actual experience with this?
        \_ None of the three prices above are the actual price anyway.  I
           heard that if you're a tourist, bargin it down to 10% of the (i.e.
           your) "original" price and it'll be about right.  On the other hand,
           Chinese can also call people here assholes, because when you go to
           restaurants, the waiters expect something called a tip on top of the
           listed price plus tax.
           \_ Um, tips is customary in civilized countries. Having to
              haggle is the most uncivilized thing I have to do. It's
              no better than going to used car dealership and to spend
              1-2 hours haggling about the price only to get something
              that is subpar in nature.
              \_ No tip in Japan which is a highly civilized country.
              \_ No tip in Japan, a highly civilized country.
              \_ Tips are customary where tips are customary.  Waiters in the
                 U.S. expect a tip because the custom is to pay them below
                 minimum wage and expect them to make it up in tips.  In
                 countries where they pay the waitstaff, tips are not
                 customary.  In some places where tips are not customary,
                 they are welcomed; in others, leaving a tip can be considered
                 insulting.  You don't have to like or understand the rules,
                 you just have to know them.  -tom
              \_ They don't tip in France. -Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey
              \_ I think not having to tip is definitely more civilized.
                 Dealing with tips is vulgar.  Dealing with raw cash at all
                 is vulgar.  Tips are a needless burden of obligation with
                 no real benefit to the customer.  At least, there shouldn't
                 be a benefit if the society is civilized and people do
                 the jobs for which they agree to be paid.
                 \_ Thank you. We need to tip people because we underpay
                    waitor/waitresses. You can thank your FREE MARKET
                    pay employees as low as you can mentality for this.
                    \_ Stop squishing my changes kchang.
                    \_ Stop squishing my changes ausman.
           \_ I once haggled over 7 cents in Thailand not because it mattered
              but because it was expected. It can take a while to get used to
              haggling over everything, and I was immensely relieved to get
              back to a non-haggling society, even though the prices were much
              higher.
              \_ Americans don't seem to have good haggling genes. That's
                 why foreigners love it when Americans shop at their
                 street booth. Love Americans. FIE DOLLAH!
                 \_ It's more like Americans aren't used to it.  If you lived
                    there long enough, you'd get used to it, and then it
                    would be second nature. For a vacation, however, it's
                    simply not worth the agita. Unless, of course, you don't
                    want to be rude, in which case, haggling is a necessary
                    evil. Cf. "bu yao" as reflex in China.
        \_ It is like this everywhere in the 3rd world. I definitely got
           this experience in Cairo, too and my friend who lived there
           and spoke fluent Arabic confirmed it.
               \- for a somewhat intereting historical episode, if you can
                  read russian, see here:
                  http://www.yale.edu/annals/Steinberg/Images/Steinberg05.JPG
                  also discussed in John Reed's "Ten Days that Shook the
                  World".