Well, I finally replaced my old Nokia cell phone. It had seen me through about 3 long and bumpy years in China, but I think it’s definitely time to set her out to pasture.

For a replacement phone, I went out on a limb and bought a Blackberry 7100. Yes, a Blackberry in China. I wasn’t aware that you could get them in China yet, but apparently you can. Much to my surprise, a Chinese friend of mine had bought one. For 700RMB no less.

So yesterday I headed down to the cell phone market to see what I could track down. I walked up to the first lady-vendor:

Me: Got any Blackberries?
Lady: Ah? [looks questioningly at coworkers]
Coworker: Wait a minute, I know where to find one. [goes off to another stall]
(wait ten minutes)
Coworker: I’m back. Here ya go.
Me: How much?
Coworker: 7000RMB.
Me: Ha ha ha ha. I think you’ve been misinformed. It should be about 700.
(coworker goes off again, then returns)
Coworker: It’s 850RMB.
Me: My friend bought one for 700RMB. I can come back tomorrow with him, and get it for 700, or you can give it to me now. Is 700 ok?
Coworker: Ok, ok, ok. 700 is ok.

I hate bargaining…

I still need to play around with this phone a bit to figure out all the features. I still haven’t configured my email yet, but I’ll get to that later. I am a bit disappointed that I can’t send Chinese text messages, although there is a Chinese interface option in the settings. But I don’t send that many Chinese text messages all that often these days anyhow.

The China/Blackberry story has been an intriguing one so far. From tales of Chinese spies in Canada stealing Blackberry technology, to China Unicom producing a strangely similar Redberry device - it’s been an interesting story to watch.

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