DK Travel : Beijing : Shopping

Page
1
2
3
4
5
6

Oriental Plaza

Several floors of big name international, high-end retailers, from Apple and Sony to Armani and Paul Smith. Don’t expect any bargains.
Panjiayuan Antique Market

Set the alarm for dawn for a treasure hunt down at Beijing’s sprawling flea market, where anything and everything turns up eventually (see Panjiayuan Antique Market).
Panjiayuan Antique Market

As much a tourist attraction as a shopping experience, Panjiayuan is home to around 3,000 dealers peddling everything from broken bicycles to family heirlooms. Come for Mao memorabilia, a Qing-dynasty vase, or yellowing Tintin comics in Chinese. The market kicks off daily at 4:30am, and is at its busiest, best, and most chaotic at the weekends. Serious collectors swoop at dawn, but it’s fun any time.
Red Gate Gallery

Art in a 15th-century city watchtower (see Southeast Corner Watchtower). www.redgategallery.com
Ri Tan Office Building

A former office building on the south side of Ri Tan Park, now a warren of small, independent boutiques.
Ruifuxiang

Silk has been sold on this precise spot since 1893. Tailors can make blouses and qipaos (the old-style Chinese dress).
Silk

A Chinese invention and still widely employed today for fine-quality clothing and embroidery. Genuine silk garments are expensive but look out for cheaper household accessories such as silk cushions or bags.
Silk Market

More properly known as Xiushui, this is the most infamous market in Beijing. It is reportedly the city’s third main tourist attraction after the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Some 100,000 shoppers a day visit to snap up famous brand goods for ridiculously low prices. Of course, they are all fakes, but who’s to know? However, visitors may not have to struggle with the morality of it all for much longer, as the trade in counterfeits is likely to be stamped out before the Olympics come to town (see also Silk Market).
Silk Market

It can’t last, but for the time being this four-story indoor market remains the lodestone for counterfeit designer goods. Don’t forget to haggle as if your life depended on it (see Silk Market).
Sun Dong’an Plaza

A mall full of mid-range clothes shops with a multiscreen cinema and lots of restaurants up on the top floor.