Stores, Malls or Markets in Beijing

I booked a tour to the Badaling Wall and did not realize that a visit to a silk shop and a jade shop were included.

Beijing Dong Wu Silk Museum is a government-owned silk shop. At first an employee explained to us everything we should know about silk production and then we were presented blankets and pillows made of silk, then we went to another floor where employees tried to sell us silk clothes for men and women, neckties, bags, slippers, undies. Quality of the goods is very high and so were the prices.

What to buy: A good buy in this shop, I consider, is anything you need for your bed - if you are allergic to dust. etc. You won't be able to find blanket and pillow made of 100% silk everywhere.

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Qianmen area has always been of interest to me and when I first came to China, this shopping area, known as Dazhanlan (but to the locals as Dashilar) was such a busy place bustling with fast food restaurants, Time Honoured Brands (shops which have been here for hundreds of years) and a mish mash of stalls selling anything from chopsticks, to mugs which change colour when warm liquid is poured in, to Mao Memorabilia. It was a fun place to bring guests and you could always get a feel of old China here. What is extremely interesting now is that you can still get that feeling of Old China, but this time from the original Qianmen main street in the 1920s and 1930s. Buildings have been modelled against what they used to look like which I think is extremely fun and is great as a tourist area. It will definitely bring in the crowds.

Throughout this whole area, you can definitely catch a glimpse of how life used to be and exploring all the little hutongs will almost certainly make you feel like you've been transported back to Beijing in the 1920s!

What to buy: Among all the stores on the street the roast duck restaurant Quanjude might be the most famous. Opened in 1864, the Qianmen branch of the restaurant is the original. You'll find the price of a duck here higher than other duck restaurants around town but filled to capacity, Quanjude Restaurant can serve as many as 5,000 meals a day.

Also down the street, but more towards the southern end, you will find Beijing's first H&M clothing Store! This opened at the beginning of May and there were HUGE crowds! I was among them and it was not fun, but it was so exciting to have an affordable foreign clothes shop here that you just had to forget about the throngs of people and grab stuff as and when you saw it!

I would say strangely though the stone buildings along the first couple of hundred metres of the street are completely empty, but in China that is not something new. The buildings will be built and then they'll try and find occupants to fill them up! This street you will also have to remember, was on a time crunch and was literally opened to the public one day before the Olympics started last August so I presume that's also why most of it was empty. After several minutes of walking, the 'Laozihao' (time-honored brand) shops start appearing; these currently include Famous Beijing Snacks, Dumpling restaurants (Duyichu and Goubuli), and perhaps a tea shop here and there.

Your best bet at the moment to actually buy things rather than just look at fun architecture would be to head off the Main Shopping Street and go to Dashilar. This is round the back streets and has lots of great shops for buying souvenirs and has plenty of little snack restaurants too at very local prices.

What to pay: Obviously depending on what you're buying, you must remember that China is still a country of bargaining! The Qianmen Main Shopping Street will eventually have real shops and by that I mean no bargaining allowed, but the side streets that split off it, especially Dashilar area are full of shops where you definitely need to play the game! Never accept the first price and always aim for a third of what they offered you and work up slightly from there!

Teenagers and youngsters in their 20s go to WuDaoKou 五道口 in the northwestern part of the city. It's in the university district. There's a new mall there but I forget what it's called.

Besides the mall, there're many little shops and eateries along the street and in the general vicinity.

There's also a wholesale apparel market nearby called the 五道口服装市场, but it may be a little hard for a tourist to find.

The area is served by a subway station and many buses, but the traffic's often backed up for hours on weekends and during rush hours.

What to buy: You'll find all the latest fashion trends among youngsters here, in particular Korean trends because of the large number of Korean students in the area.

What to pay: Anything upwards of Y50. Prices can go as low as Y20 at the wholesale market.

The Foreign Languages Bookstore on Wangfujing Dajie is worth a visit. Aside from English novels, travel guides and cookbooks, it also carries a line of Foreign Language Press books "dedicated to the editing, translation and publishing of... a great number of China's classics."
The volumes, with titles like 'Selected Chinese stories of the Song and Ming Dynasties', consist of short stories. Titles include 'The Jade Worker', 'The Coutesan's Jewel Box', 'The Ghost Met At Night', and 'The Three Evils'.
The tales are published in Chinese-English bilingual form, with Chinese characters on the left and English on the opposing right-hand page.
Open 0900 to 2030.

What to buy: English translations of Chinese classics. Buy the soft-cover titles, which weighs less and is easier to transport.

.BRING CASH. I went to a big dept store in Beijing and presented my Citibank Mastercard only to be told we don't accept this card...even though they had signs accpting Visa & Mastercard everywhere.
After yelling and screaming at them for 10 minutes, they swiped my card, I signed and went on my way.
Another tip for those who want to know how much something is in there money.
I get an excel spreadsheet. Put the number of RMBs in one column and next column I do the calculation for what it is worth in A$.
so the fist column might go, 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25....100...200...1000 (RMBs)
Second colum will have 18 cents, 90 cents, A$1.80, A$2.70, A$3.60, A$4.50.....A$18.00....A$36.00....A$180.00
So when I go shop at the Silk Market and the girl says 700 RMB for a pair of jeans and look at my spread sheet and see that is A$127.00. I don't try and stand there and think 700 RMB divided by 5.5 RMB/A$ = ???
I do this everytime I travel and it makes shopping a breaze

There's always a shop selling something for anyone and everyone in Beijing. The shops in Silk Road (pronounced as /Siew Suay Chieh/) which houses labels from all over the world! It's on the main road that takes you to the Forbidden City, Tian An Men Sq, Wangfujing; a short distance from the metro/subway line, and a 10 minute walk from world Trade Ctr. People will tell you that you have to be brutal when it comes to slashing prices but I feel that as long as you are comfortable about the price you are being asked to pay, then there's no such thing as being fleeced or having paid too much. So what if someone gets their jeans initial offer of RMB800 slashed to RMB200 and you got yours at RMB500 when you had a more memorable and enjoyable time and especially when you have never bargained prices in your life. Btw, Wangfujing is akin to premium shopping area.

you are looking for Xiu-Shui St. Market.

you can take subway line 1 to the Yong-An-Li station.

fake goods are not set out publicly. you should ask one of the holders privately.

all fake T-shirts and handbags at around 200 CNY.

http://drtu.com/en/?p=118

When I was in the US, I used to buy all photography equipment online via a few trusted vendors such as www.amazon.com, www.ritzcamera.com etc. When I started to live in China in 2004, I had to find a local vendor who can sell the real camera equipment at a reasonable price.

I soon discovered that the Photography Equipment City in Wudesong intersection on the west 4th ring road of Beijing is the place to go for all my photography needs. They sell all the popular camera and lenses at almost the same price as amazon or ritz), mostly with manufacture warranty.

This is a large 2 story building and houses more than 100 photography equipment shops. The shops offer anything related to photography, cameras, lenses, lighting, photo printing, framing, photography books, even there are a few photo schools in the building.

The camera shops are operated by individual sellers. The building management rents out space at a fixed monthly rent and the sellers are responsible for merchandise and the price. (much like the eBay and the individual eBay sellers relationship). Since each shop is individually operated, you are expected to bargain a little bit. However, do not try to cut the price in half as you would do in places like Hongqiao pearl market.

For the past 4 years, I have brought 2 camera bodies and 3 lenses and I sold 1 camera body and 2 lenses in the Photography Equipment City. My experiences are positive. (used camera bodies and the lenses are usually sold at 40-60% of the new price to the dealers)

Price: The price is about the same as the US price.
Rayi has a physical shop in the Photography Equipment City in Beijing and an ecommerce site: www.rayi.com.cn.
Nikon D300 body price:
Rayi online: 11,000RMB which is 1571USD (1USD = 7 RMB)
http://www.rayi.com.cn/static/product_6937.htm
Ritz camera online 1,799USD
http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/541531331.htm
Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Lens price comparison:
Rayi online: 14980RMB which is 2010USD
http://www.rayi.com.cn/static/product_2129.htm
Ritz camera online: 1799.95USD

Quality: These are all made by Nikon (factory in Thailand) or Canon or others, why do you think that they are any difference if they are sold in Hong Kong, USA or in China?

Is it possible that you pay a real Nikon price but get a “knock off” Nikon? The answer is very unlikely. I have never heard such as a story from the local photography community in Beijing. I personally doubt that a small factory out in remote towns somewhere has the skills and technology to produce the “fake” or even a “look a like” Nikon D3. What’s more, the management of the Photography Equipment City has every bit of interest to make sure that the sellers do not sell “fake” camera as. A “fake” camera story travels very fast on the internet these days and that story will surely put a dent on the reputation of the Photography Equipment City and surely will hurt their business. The rent that the Photography Equipment City charge the sellers every month is patially dependent upon the buyers experience.

Is it possible that you will get a grey market camera? Yes, that is a possibility! But you will most likely to know it is a grey market camera before you buy it.

A grey market equipment is a camera that is sold in the US or China but it is not meant to be sold in the US or China. Grey market cameras do not include a manufacturer ’s warranty but they are REAL cameras and are made by the original manufacturer such as Nikon or Canon. The grey market equipment is usually sold cheaper than the full manufacturer’s warranty cameras, but the price difference is very small, usually couple of hundred RMB which is 20-30USD.

My experience shows that the seller in the Photography Equipment City will usually tell you that the equipment is a grey market or not. The gray market camera and the camera with full manufacturer’s warranty are priced differently (usually less than couple of hundred RMB). I recommend buying a camera with the manufacturing warranty and pay the extra few hundred RMB just for the peace of mind. I do not know if the manufacturer warranty is international though.

For those of you who stay long term in China or have to pick up some photography gears in Beijing for that dream adventure in the silk road, I recommend that you go to the Photography Equipment City in Beijing and buy the equipments with the full manufacture warranty.

What to buy: Camera, Lenses, Lights, Camera Bags, Prints, Books, anything to do with Photography

What to pay: The same price you would pay in the US.