Shenyang Shopping

in a very old and dark apartment. 2nd flour. stores and stands of jewelrys, paintings, crafts and everything strange. most antiques are fake, but you can buy cheapest jewelry which you do not want to afford in big store.

What to buy: jade, other fine stones, chinese painting etc.

What to pay: 10yuan to 10 thousand.

Carrefour is on Qingnian jie near the Kempinski. I always like to buy cereal and milk for quick breakfasts and snacks for Lily. Carrefour had her favorite cereal. If you stay at the Kempinski it is a nice walk. We did it a few times. Much closer is an open air market directly behind the hotel.

What to buy: Carrefour is the same as any city. Just good to know if you need something specific. There are actually two in Shenyang the one on the other side of town has a pizza hut restaurant and is bigger.
The market is to the left through the car park at the hotel. Great fruit, baozi, jiaozi, and vegetables that made me wish I had a kitchen to cook in at the Kempinski!

What to pay: Baozi (steamed, meat or veg filled buns) were two for 1 RMB. I think 500 grams of jiaozi were 1.5 RMB. I know I went out to get breakfast for my husband a few times and spent less than 5 RMB on fruit, jiaozi and Steamed bean milk...LOTS

This is a pedestrian street with a mix of trendy stores, a few big department stores, a huge, more upscale mall, and a smattering of dirt cheap little stalls. Lots of great places to eat as well. Don't forget the underground mall at the end of the street. Go down the stairs to what seems to just be a subway street crossing...good shopping there too.

What to buy: SHOES! I wear a women's US size nine, and EVERY store had my size! I bought a beautiful pair of Chocolate brown, high leather, furn lined boots for about 350. If you wear bigger sizes you are in luck for shoe shopping. There are also a lot of funky stores with stylish clothes at decent prices, though not as dirt cheap as the Wu Ai area

What to pay: Under 1OO for a good quality sweater, 300-500 for high, high quality boots. gloves, scarves and hats for around 20, Kids sweaters and pants for 15-30. TONS of long underwear if you wear them. I can't get used to this habit...so not sure what they cost, couldn't be much

This whole area is absolutely fantastic! Wall to wall people, but super bargains on everything from red envelopes and Christmas cards to baby clothes. I took my daughter to Mc Donald's for an ice cream and then power shopped. Even the first price offered was usually half what you would be told in BJ, but this still could be bargained down to ridiculous lows. I bought, sunglasses for 15RMB, a great hello kitty bag for my daughter for 20, socks for 2RMB a pair, a terrific fur scarf for 45 and lots of little toys, puppets, doll house furniture for various prices all around 10-15.

What to buy: This whole area is market after market. Keep walking and looking and you will find everything.
Across the street from the Gold Character Sign saying Wu Ai Market is a great little sweater shop with high quality sweaters all at 30 RMB. Behind this building is also a GIANT toy market that is paradise for any kid or toy loving adult. I didn't even bother bargaining because the prices were so low.

What to pay: I do speak Chinese and am always toting around a two year old, which seems to charm a lot of shop keepers. Shopping is also my passion...but if you go armed with nothing more than a smile and a pocket calculator, you should do fine. Much cheaper than Beijing, Shanghai or GZ for this type of merchandise.

shenyang have several market to sell antiques, crafts and painting. at first, a largest one is on the street, in holiday, whole street crowded by all kinds of antiques just like in vault of palace. now, more seller move into the inside dark market. but now, a new outside market appears in beizhan.

other market is beishi guwan shichang, daqingcheng, and beizhan guwanshichang.

Whatever it is you want to buy in Shenyang, you'll find a cheaper version at Wu Ai Market. You have to do some serious bargaining at Wu Ai, as they WILL rip off anyone who cannot pass as a local (if unsure, start bargaining at 25% of the offered price). If you have white skin, you cannot get the lowest price, period. Even the foreigner prices are very reasonable, though, and if quality is not an issue, Wu Ai is the place to find any random item you might need. There is a McDonalds right outside, which makes for a handy place to grab some coffee/sit in AC depending on the season, even though I'm not a huge fan of Western fast food. Be sure to go in the morning, as they generally close shop early in the afternoon.

Some things I've found at Wu Ai:
- Santa costumes and Christmas decorations
- Cool calendars (great souveniers/gifts if you are here in December)
- Cheap xiang qi, weiqi sets
- Slippers, towels, wastebakets, etc.
- Chinese lanterns, other typical Chinese souveniers
- Decent rugs
- Posters of anything...

What to pay: Much less than department stores or Zhong Jie... this is where the average Shenyang person goes shopping.

Riverside Garden -- South end of town on Qingnian Street across from the Mariott Hotel. Here you can find Western and Japanese snacks, cheeses, root beer, etc. Not the cheapest place to shop, but a good place to go if you have a craving for Tostito's, Swiss cheese, or root beer.

Riverside Garden is also an exclusive community for the wealthy citizens of Shenyang with a health club, tennis court, etc. You cannot take a taxi inside.

What to pay: A can of root beer costs 6 yuan. Salted cashews cost 50 yuan!! Jack Daniels costs 165 yuan. Pasta and tomato sauce are more reasonable.

taiyuan street is the shopping center in shenyang which is loacated in railway station. in the past, japanese made it the center situation, and name it spring.

the largest store is zhongxing.

the jade beauty is on 2nd floor in zhongxing. it is a traditional craft store with many jadeite pendants.