title: Converting JSON to Python Dictionaries replaces double quotes with single and adds a "u" before each double quote opening instance
body: <p>I'm using the following procedure to grab a json file and break it down into a dictionary file which I can further use. The code I'm using is as follows:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import urllib
  import json
  
  pricelist_link="http://foo.com/test.json"
  
  price_instance=urllib.urlopen(pricelist_link)
  print type(price_instance)
  
  parsed_price_data = json.loads(price_instance.read())
  print type(parsed_price_data)
  print parsed_price_data
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This appears to be the standard way of doing this (I've seen suggestions of using urllib2 instead, however that did not yield different results for me.</p>
  
  <p>When I view the JSON file in the browser, it appears normal, with double quotes:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{"AK-47 | Aquamarine Revenge (Battle-Scarred)":{"2016-01-26":{"price":821,"count":19},"2016-01-27":{"price":762,"count":24},"2016-01-28":{"price":745,"count":22},"2016-01-29":...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However when I print the "parsed_price_data", it appears with a <code>u</code> before single quotes.</p>
  
  <pre><code>{u'P250 | Muertos (Battle-Scarred)': {u'2016-03-13': {u'count': 3, u'price': 118}, u'2016-03-17': {u'count': 3, u'price': 129}, u'2016-03-01': {u'count': 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm not worried about the double quotes going to single quotes, but what is with the <code>u</code>? Is there an easy way to remedy this without a cumbersome regex?</p>