In the open-air spice markets of the Qinghai province, women hawking cordyceps will wear billowing sleeves into which buyers will reach to touch her hand, tapping and fidgeting with fingers in covert price negotiation, a private kinaesthetic bargaining language.
It works like this:
| Hand motion | Correlating amount (ascends with repetition) |
|---|---|
| Pinch 1st finger1 | 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 |
| Pinch 1st and 2nd finger | 2, 20, 200, 2,000, 20,000 |
| Pinch 1st - 3rd fingers | 2, 20, 200, 2,000, 20,000 |
| Pinch 1st - 4th fingers | 3, 30, 300, 3,000, and 30,000 |
| Pinch all 5 fingers | 5, 50, 500, 5,000 and 50,000 |
| Pinch thumb and little finger | 6, 60, 600, 6,000 and 60,000 |
| Pinch thumb, index, and middle finger | 7, 70, 700, 7,000 and 70,000 |
| Extend thumb and index finger | 8, 80, 800, 8,000 and 80,000 |
| Pinch 1st finger in a circle2 | 9, 90, 900, 9,000 and 90,000 |