Kunming Shopping

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The main shopping area lies right in the centre of Kunming and is pedestrianised. As well as fashion shops and the like, there are also several good looking restaurants plus the ubiquitous McDonald's and KFC. The area makes for quite a pleasant walk past fountain areas where people in white coats were giving passersby massages. Kunming was the first city I visited in China where I saw such a large western style shopping area but it was such a large scale than anything we have back home so I was constantly walking around looking up at the tall buildings in awe.

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This was the first Carrefour hypermarket that I came across in China. I love walking round foreign supermarkets as they always offer an insight into the cuisine culture of the locals and this one was selling all kinds of products such as whole fresh chickens, pigs trotters, fresh fish (a lady was trying to catch one with a net when I was there), loads of giant bottles of cooking oil and soy sauce and 20kg bags of rice.

Open: 08:30-22:30.

One of the shopping spot we were brought to is this Yunnan Luyu Tea Culture Exchange Centre. It is said to be a reserch program centre run by Yunnan Agricultural University.

In Yunnan, if you talk about tea, it will be about Pu Erh. Unlike other tea where the fresher the better, Pu Erh is the older, the better and the higher the price it will be. There are different classifications of the Pu Erh tea leaves, the Sheng Pu Erh or so call "raw" ones, Shou Pu Erh (matured ones) and Cheng Nian (Aged Pu Erh). People usually buy aged Pu Erh for keep, for investment and not for consumption.

As I'm not a tea drinker, I can't really tell if the tea they are selling is really value for money, you may have to assess it yourself.

What to buy: Pu Erh

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On the Dong Feng Road, near the big departments stores, you can find a very tiny mrket place, where I saw a spendid collection of Chines porcelain ware. Beautifull shapes and colours.

What to buy: If you like Chinese porcelain ware, this a an interesting place with a very large choice. The only problem remains always, to find the place in your bags homewards.

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The famous Flowers and Birds Market in Jingxing Street is the city's biggest, most attractive shopping market where spring reigns all year.

What to buy: The Flowers and Birds Market is also a popular trading place for antiques. Curios, coins, jade articles, jewelry, ink stones, porcelains, potteries, stone carvings, and marble products are among the arts and crafts to be found there. It is a treasure trove for souvenirs. Do not miss the shops that sell colorful ethnic costumes with headdresses. Most are handcrafted and very popular with tourists. Prices are reasonable, and you may even bargain with shopkeepers.

What to pay: Cheap to the Expensive - especially for the JADE!

Here you find evereything from crap to antiques. There is also a lot of stuff in the huge building in front of it and it's good for hunting Chinese paintings, wooden products, jade and tea supplies. Always bargain. Don't buy just any antique qhich was offered to you and sellers (young females mostly) can be very intrusive sometimes and it's better to avoid them unless you really want to buy something from them. There are sections to buy cheap DVDs and music.

What to buy: Traditional medicine, birds and bird flu (hehe- don't take it too seriously), plants, beautiful orchids and asparagus, camping equipment.

What to pay: depends on skills...

This department store is much nicer than Walmart. It is clean and bright and has lots of foreign products that foreigners would like. The prices are slightly higher than elsewhere, but I feel this is made up by the standardized pricing and higher quality.

What to buy: Food or other basic supplies. Really, lots of things.

Walmart is big and dirty, just like in the US. It has a lot of things to buy, but not many unique ones that you couldn't find else where in Kunming. Prices were average, not a steal, but not overpriced.