Notice: The summer hours for most Beijing shopping malls are 9:00am to 21:00pm, and in winter they are closed either a half or one hour earlier than in summer. Many larger and Tourism Appointed stores will accept credit card payment. Bringing some cash is always necessary in the event that you'd like to buy something from the street vendors.

Local Specialties: Beijing's 'Four Famous Representative Arts' are cloisonne (Jingtailan), ivory carvings (Yadiao), jade objects (Yuqi) and carved lacquer wares (Qidiao). They are handmade folk art. You may also find lifelike flour or clay figurines (Mianren or Niren), colorful kites, exquisite paper-cut, Chinese knots (Zhongguojie) and others in the street.

Beijing, the nation's capital is an ideal tourist shopping city. There are four business areas in Beijing: Wangfujing Street, Qianmen Street, Xidan Commercial Street and Dongsi Street.

Wangfujing Street: starts with East Changan Jie in the south, ends with China Art Gallery in the north, this 700-year-old commercial street is about three Li (about 1640 yards) long. The first famous business zone in Beijing houses a wide variety of shops and boutiques where you find commodities, some of which are of world-famous brands. Nowadays Wangfujing Street is a modern commercial street which is said to be the sister street of the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

The Foreign Language Bookstore is also in this area. The Old-Beijing-Street is underground, and built in Ming and Qing styles. The outstanding characteristic of it is the centralized well-known longstanding stores selling shoes, caps, silk cloth, scissors, Chinese brushes and ink-stick, jade, teas, desserts, pickled vegetables, roast duck and so on. Beijing Craftwork and Art Mansion specially operates various industrial arts and artworks, and is famed all over Beijing, and is an old shop in Wangfujing Street. Xin Dong An Plaza and Beijing Department Building are large-size general merchandise retail shops in China, and Yong Zheng Tailors Shop is famed for its sewing men formal dress. Customers can enjoy the superior service here and it is said that the shop has even offered special services for state leaders and stars.

Qianmen Street used to be the business center 500 hundred years ago, thus now it is filled with aged brand stores.

To the west of Tiananmen Square is the Xidan Commercial Street, named 'the second Wangfujing' in Beijing, it now consists of mainly food markets, clothes stores and commodities. It is of an international standard modern commercial combination of shopping, dining, recreation and culture etc.

Liulichang Culture Street

As an antique collector, you should not miss Liulichang Culture Street. It is a few minutes' walk from the south of Hepingmen subway station. It is an established market selling jewelry, antiques, ancient calligraphies and paintings. Antiques of 100 years old and over are marked with a red seal and requires an export license before leaving the country.

The best-known shop in this street is Rong Bao Zhai, which first opened about 300 years ago, and sells authentic works of art. There are also shops selling old watches and furniture. The China Book Store is located at No. 57 Liulichang West Street, where tourists can buy new editions of ancient Chinese books, new and old edition books on literature, history and philosophy etc.

Silk Alley (Xiushui Street)

Silk Alley lies in Xiushuidong Jie (East Xiushui Street) off Jianguomenwai Street, near the US Embassy. It is a good place frequented by the resident foreigners in Beijing for bargains. Whatever you wish to buy, like bags, shoes, handicrafts or sweaters, you may haggle a lot with the owners for the best price.

Women Street

Operation of the street covers clothing, general merchandise and shoes and hats, and mainly includes imported from Guangzhou, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as other international fare. Women Street is believed to be the place that you can find anything you might want.

Panjiayuan Folk Culture Market

It is a holiday market selling old folk art wares, collections and decorations including old books, furniture in ancient styles, jade articles, porcelains, Chinese and foreign coins and folk costumes etc.

Address: 18, Huawei Li, Panjiayuan Road, Chaoyang District

Opening hour: Curio area opens every day while art wares area opens only on Saturday and Sunday.

You may choose to go to specialty stores as well as those large shopping malls for daily necessities.

Commodities: As the capital city of China, Beijing has many supermarkets. We recommend the ones below:

Wangfujing Shidu Department Store

Location: B3, 99, Wangfujing Da Jie

Beijing Hualian Emporium

Location: 1 Fuwai Da Jie, Xicheng District

Rice Smart (Haidian District Branch)

Location: A18, Xueqing Lu, Haidian District

Clothing: Parkson Plaza (101, Fuxingmennei Da Jie), Scitech Plaza (22, Jianguomenwai Da Jie) or Beijing Department Store (255, Wangfujing Da Jie), Xidan Shopping Center (132, Xidan Bei Da Jie) and Tianyuan Lisheng Sports Articles Emporium (201, Wangfujing Da Jie, Dongcheng District) are the usual choices of local people.

Books & Videos

Xinhua Book Store (Wangfujing Branch)

Address: 218, Wangfujing Da Jie (south end), Dongcheng District

Beijing Book Building: the largest retail book store in China now.

Address: 17, Xi Chang'an Street, Xicheng District

Electrical Appliances: Guo Mei Electrical Appliances Store, a linkage retail commerce enterprise operates homemade, joint, imported household electrical appliance and computer.

Location: about 300 meters (over 328 yards) south of the turning of Qianmen Lu

Stamps & postcard: are available in most of the book stores or newspaper booths.