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Shopping is one of Beijing’s pleasures – whether you’re looking for souvenirs, haggling over pearls or just soaking up the atmosphere at one of the open-air markets. Prices aren’t as cheap as they used to be, but good deals are still possible for items like art, scrolls, silk, jewellery, jade and clothing.

Beijing has a huge amount of stores and specialist shopping districts to choose from. In Xuanwu, Liulichang Xijie and Liulichang Dongjie, located in a vibrant hutong neighbourhood, have been restored as old-style shopping streets and are lined with dozens of stores specialising in inks, paintings and scrolls. This is where Beijing’s professional calligraphers, teachers and students come to buy their paper, brushes and calligraphy books. It’s also a good place to get a chop, or seal, made.

Nearby, Dazhalan Jie has been a shopping zone for centuries and is home to some of Beijing’s oldest stores. Like Liulichang, it’s pedestrian only and the bustling hutong running off it still retain a medieval flavour.

In Dongcheng, Wangfujing Dajie is the most fashionable shopping strip, anchored by the upmarket Oriental Plaza mall and lined with towering department stores. Elsewhere in the district, trendy clothes, accessory and jewellery stores have overrun Gulou Dongdajie and Nanluogu Xiang.

Next door in Chaoyang, clothing from the Silk Market or Yashow Clothing Market is many travellers’ favourite buy. There are plenty of malls here too, while further south is the fantastic Panjiayuan Antique Market.

The Houhai Lake area in Xicheng has jewellery and souvenir options, both lakeside and on nearby Yandai Xiejie. Xidan Beidajie (北大街), just north of the Xidan subway stop, is where young Beijingers shop for clothes. Mobbed at weekends, it’s packed with above- and below-ground malls and department stores.

While handicrafts and kites, traditional paper cuttings and silk scarves all make excellent souvenirs, be wary of buying items the vendor claims are antiques. Not only is it illegal for foreigners to take anything made before 1795 out of the country, but Beijing has mostly been swept of its genuine treasures. What wasn’t destroyed or stolen in the wars before 1949 disappeared in the Cultural Revolution or has been smuggled out of the country more recently.

It’s the same story for art: almost 100% of all works from China’s great 20th-century masters are completely catalogued in private collections and museums. There are, though, plenty of options for buying contemporary art at the galleries in the 798 Art District, even if the work doesn’t come cheap.

Prices are generally fixed in malls and department stores, although a 10% discount is sometimes possible if you ask. Markets and antique shops are another matter. Haggle hard – all sellers think foreigners are loaded and in places like Panjiayuan will sometimes ask for 10 times the real price – but remember to keep it friendly. The point of bargaining is not to screw the vendor into the ground, but to find a mutually acceptable transaction. Often, just walking away results in a lower price.

With Beijingers shopping and spending more and more, closing time is fading further into the night. Most malls, markets and shops are open every day, from 9am or 10am and some stay open until 10pm.

In many department stores and older shops, paying for your purchase involves handing over what you want to the salesperson, who gives you a ticket for the cashier, who collects your money and gives you a stamped receipt to take back to the salesperson to exchange for your purchase.

Most up-scale malls and some shops will take international credit cards; others accept only Chinese credit cards. Markets are cash only, so come prepared.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14