Xiushui Silk Market and other shops and markets to buy in Beijing

In your Trip to china, shopping is an activity that is sure to take center stage. There are many department stores, shopping streets and markets where you can buy all kinds of products, but it is not always easy to know where to go.

If you are interested in taking advantage of your visit to the capital of china for go shopping, you may find this list of shops, markets and warehouses in Beijing interesting.

That China is the country of imitations is known to everyone. Therefore, in your Trip to china one of the regularsattractive” is being able to buy imitation products from big brands at bargain prices, and in Pekin you have the opportunity to do it.

On this page you will find a list of markets, shopping streets and stores, with numerous links that provide us with practical information about what we can buy in each of them.

This directory of shops and markets serves as a good helpful guide to know where to buy in Beijing / Beijing.

In addition to giving you access to general information about all types of purchases, you will find detailed information about the following shopping sites.

The list includes the city's major large markets as well as main shopping streets.

Beijing Xiushui Silk Market

El Beijing Silk Market, in Chinese called Xiushui Market, It's one of the "imitation temples” where to go, and this is what the thousands of tourists who visit do every year. We visit the capital of China.

El Silk Market is situated in the Chang An Avenue  (you have to get off at the metro stop Yonganli, from line 1), and is currently known as the Silk Street (Silk Street in English).

There you will find a modern five-story shopping center, where in 2005 the authorities decided to locate the hundreds of merchants of all types of products who occupied that street, creating a large market.

When you get to Beijing Silk Market / Beijing, at first it will give you the impression that you are in a typical shopping center full of shops. But you will quickly see that on each floor there are commercial stalls that offer a multitude of products, with a total of up to 1.700 in the entire building.

On each of the floors, stalls selling similar products are grouped together, such as those offering watches and glasses, or those selling clothing of all kinds, bags, sportswear or suitcases.

While the sale of imitations of big brands It is officially prohibited and persecuted by the Chinese authorities, the truth is that all stalls offer this type of product.

Regardless of the interest you may or may not have in purchasing this type of products from imitations, which you can get at very cheap prices, but also with dubious quality, you have to keep in mind that it is made required bargain.

Bargain at Xiushui Silk Market

At Beijing Silk Market Chinese merchants are very attentive to tourists (and specifically to Spaniards), but also very “heavy".

At the outset, they will ask you for a price that can be up to ten times higher than the one you finally have to pay, so each purchase requires the typical haggling process: ask for a price, get angry, leave the position, look in other positions, go up very high. little by little the price, etc.

And for process bargain you need to spend a lot of time, so if you decide to go to the Silk Market, you will spend an entire morning or an entire afternoon there, facilitated by its long hours (open every day, from 9 in the morning to 9 at night).

Possibly, for some of you it may not be worth it, and you will prefer to visit somewhere else Beijing tourist attraction. But silk street market It doesn't stop being curious...

Wangfujing Street, a major commercial hub in central Beijing

When considering shopping in Pekin Beijing, you should know that Wangfujing It is the name of the most important and central shopping street in the city.

Located near the Tiananmen square, just one subway station away, on line 1, Wangfujing Street concentrates two department stores, numerous brand stores, souvenir shops, restaurants of the usual European franchises, etc.

In sum, Wangfujing Street It is the typical large shopping street in the center of a big city, with a length of just under a kilometer, which you can walk from end to end, if you don't stop in any store, in about half an hour.

You can start your visit to the street at Wangfujing Nankou, where the Oriental Plaza department store, with six floors.

The other large warehouse of the Wangfujing shopping street is Beijing Department Store, and you also find the largest bookstore in Beijing, Wangfujing Bookstore, where you can buy books in Western languages.

La Wangfujing street It is usually very busy with visitors, and at night, thanks to the large number of neon signs, it acquires the characteristic atmosphere of a shopping street in any large European or United States city.

As for the purchase prices, although in some establishments these are not exactly cheap, in many of them the possibility of haggle to buy, essential habit in your China trip.

panjiayuan

If in your travel to Beijing Beijing you are interested in buy crafts and antiques, a good option is go to the Panjiayuan market on the weekend, which with its more than 3.000 stalls is considered the largest antiques market in Asia.

The market (or flea market) of panjiayuan It is located southeast of Beijing, on Chaoyang Street, at the height of the third belt. Although the area dedicated to the sale of antiques is open throughout the week, it is on weekends when the Panjiayuan flea market acquires its full potential.

This flea market It is divided into four zones. Apart from the aforementioned antiques area, where you can find antique furniture and other types of antiques, such as porcelain, old coins, etc... it has a large crafts area in which hundreds of artisans from around Beijing Beijing offer their work every weekend. wide variety of objects in jade, clay, etc…

At Beijing Panjiayuan Flea Market There is a third area where sculpture sellers are concentrated, and a final one where you can find calligraphy, books and old magazines.

In sum, panjiayuan It is the large crafts and antiques market in Beijing Beijing.

Maliandao

As is the case in other countries, Tea is part of Chinese culture, and the tradition of consuming it goes back many centuries.

If we like to appreciate tea, with its different aromas, in our Trip to china we will have many opportunities to enjoy it in tea houses and restaurants, and also to buy it.

Although in all large Chinese cities we will not have any problem finding good stores where buy Chinese tea varieties, riding a Beijing / Beijing There is a street with almost a thousand tea shops and tea-related products. It's about the Maliandao street.

Located southwest of Xuanwu District, in Beijing / Beijing, Miliandao Street It extends for a kilometer and a half, where there are tea shops where we can not only taste and buy it, but also learn about the Chinese traditions around tea.

In the Maliandao street There are up to eight large shopping centers with hundreds of shops dedicated to tea. In short, if you like tea, visit to Maliandao street becomes obligatory in your trip to Beijing / Beijing.

Buy Jade crafts

When you arrive to China you quickly realize status very special that he has jade in that country.

This is reflected in the wide range of decorative products. jade crafts that you will find in stores and warehouses in all cities.

El jade is considered in China for more than 5.000 years as the king of precious stones. Historically, owning and wearing jade was a way to show high status social.

El chinese jade It is a silicate composed of jadeite y nephrite, which sometimes presents a greenish color due to chromium impurities, and which in ancient times was highly valued for its great hardness and resistance, which is why it was widely used to make weapons.

A good example of the importance of jade in Chinese culture is the great value and status that have historically acquired various pieces, such as the Jade buddha of the Buddhist temple of Shanghai, and in this same city, the Exquisite Jade Rock of the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai.

Within China, Shanghai is one of the cities where artisanal production of jade products It is more widespread.

In its shops and warehouses you will find different types of decorative and ornamental products, especially vases, animal figures, such as birds, dragons and flowers, and also pieces of jewelry.

Brilliance and hardness are two characteristics that should be appreciated when purchasing handmade jade products.

If you decide travel to China in a organized trip, surely one of the visits “obligatory"that you will find us is that of a large store with jade products, where they will teach you how to work with jade crafts.

I have had the opportunity to visit it in Beijing, and in this type of large tourist stores you will also have the opportunity to buy a piece of jade, if you wish.

Other Markets in Beijing

• Dashilan & New Qianmen, historic shopping street in Beijing Beijing, with more than 500 years of history
• Market Hongqiao Pearl, a four-story warehouse located east of the Heaven Temple, where apart from pearls and jewelry, there are numerous offers on clothing and accessories
• Panjiayuan Flea Market, in the district of Chaoyang, southeast of Beijing Beijing, near the Panjiayuan bridge, Asia's largest market for artisanal products and antiques, to visit during the weekends
• Curio City Market, a four-story warehouse with antiques
• Market Yashou (Yashow), four-story warehouse with clothing and accessories offers
• commercial area of Xi Dan, several streets where there are several department stores with all kinds of products, very frequented by the inhabitants of Beijing Beijing
• Liulichang Antiques , a shopping street with more than 150 stores where we can buy old books, paintings, calligraphy, inks...
• Shichahai Hutong, a very interesting visit as it is a traditional Chinese neighborhood where there are also numerous shops.

And very importantly, you must not forget to haggle when you go shopping at the markets. Here you have some Tips for haggling at markets and stores in China.