Beijing Shopping
Beijing is an internationalized commercial center with both modern sense and traditional appeal. Shopping in Beijing is a necessary part for visitors as they can have lots of choices which can satisfy their demands to the utmost. We have selected some of the most well-known shopping sites in Beijing for recommendation: Silk Market, Panjiayuan Antique Market, Wangfujing Street, Qianmen Street, Dashilanr, and Xidan. You will definitely have an impressive experience in shopping in Beijing.
1. 秀水街 Beijing Silk Market
Beijing Silk Market, or Xiushui Street, can be considered as the only globally well-known market in China. In the eyes of foreigners, Silk Market is a must-see place just like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Roast Beijing Duck. By taking No. 1 subway and stopping at YongAnLi Station, you can get to Silk Market. This market can be seen in many worldwide tourism maps.
Silk Market was initially set up in 1980, with only a few scattered shops standing there. One decade later, it became a well-known “non-government trade center”. The unique location, stylish commodities and free bargaining operation mode, and convergence of multiple languages, have forged the irreplaceable status of Silk Market. It is an amalgamation of brand, fashion and diversified cultures.
On January 6, 2005, the old Silk Market shut up for refurbishment. On March 19 the same year, the new Silk Market officially opened for business. Though the new one is actually a shopping mansion, it has continued to prolong the legend of Silk Market. The new Silk Market has a floor area of 28,000 square meters. A total of around 1500 booths are offering various commodities for clients. The sellers there can mostly understand a few English words, and some can even speak fluent English or some other foreign languages. So even without interpreters, foreigners can manage to go shopping there.
It is quite possible for you to meet some honorable foreign guests together with their wives buying clothes there. In the past, Silk Market was famous for its “high-quality” emulational well-known brand clothes. Today’s Silk Market is changing. It is striving to stand as a cultural, fashionable, innovative and brand-ensured shopping center. Here you can find all varieties of top-brand clothes designed for foreign trade. Here are also clustering many of China's time-honored brands, such as Quanjude, Tongrentang, Ruifuxiang, Neiliansheng, Qianxiangyi, and Shenggxifu. Foreigners can find brand clothes, craftwork, pearls, silk, antique, and other Chinese-featured commodities in Silk Market, from Beijing Roast Duck, Western style coffee house, to snack bards, and supermarket, and whatever you imagine. Address of Silk Market: East Chang'an Street (Dongchang'an Jie).
Take Subway No. 1 and get off at YongAnLi Station. Bus No. 1, No. 4, and No. 28 can also take you there.
2. 潘家园古玩市场 Panjiayuan Antique Market
Beijing Panjiayuan Antique Market is located at Panjiayuan Bridge, Eastern 3rd Ring South Road (Dongsanhuan Nanlu), Beijing. It covers an area of 48,500 square meters. There are mainly four operation sections: art & craft big-arch shelter zone, ancient and old furniture zone, ancient calligraphy & painting & book zone, antique zone. There’re more than 3,000 booths, with operators coming from twenty plus provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. To climb the Great Wall, visit the Forbidden City, eat Roast Duck and tour Panjiayuan have become the most important events for Chinese and foreigners paying a visit to Beijing.
It is quite crowded here every weekend. People home and abroad come here to bottom-fish their ideal antiques. Panjiayuan Antique Market is the most popular antique market in China. The fixed shops are open for business for 365 days in the whole year. The stalls are open for guests every weekend. Around 60,000-70,000 people are attracted to the market each weekend, with nearly 10,000 being foreigners. Visitors with different colors, different languages, different levels and different beliefs mingle here. Dozens of foreign VIP politicians have been here for shopping, including the former US president Clinton’s wife and the current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Greek Prime Minister, Rumania Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, Sri Lanka president’s wife, Thailand princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
Walking in the market, you can enjoy all kinds of old articles in the stalls, such as pseudo-classic furniture, the four stationery treasures of the Chinese study—writing brush, ink stick, ink stone and paper, ancient books and paintings/calligraphy, porcelain, Chinese and foreign currencies, bamboo/wood/ivory sculpture, Buddhist keepsake, relics of the Cultural Revolution. Both genuine and fake articles are being displayed there, so buyers must be careful when deciding to buy something. However it is a good place of training your eyes in the antique market. The sellers of Panjiayuan Antique Market are well-read and well-informed. Many of them can speak English, Japanese or German. The best principal of shopping here is: See much, buy less, and be cautious.
3. 王府井大街 Wangfujing Street
Wangfujing Street is close to East Chang'an Street (Dongchang'an Jie). It is among the busiest commercial streets in Beijing. Wangfujing embeds two meanings in Chinese characters: Prince’s residence and well. The construction of prince’s residence here dates back to Sui and Tang Dynasty. Then following the construction of the Forbidden City in Ming Dynasty, many top officials started to build up palaces here. There was a high-quality sweet well in the street. The name Wangfujing Street showed up as early as Ming Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, Wangfujing Street still gathered the mansions of some infantes and princes. Emperor Guangxu’s teacher also lived here. At present, there are also many ancient ruins of the old palaces.
Wangfujing Street boasts of all varieties of commodities: general merchandise, hardware and tools, clothing，Shoes and Hats, pearls & diamond, gold & silver jewels, etc. The commodity fluidity there is quite big every day. In recent years, Wangfujing Street has been developing rapidly. There are more than 1 million person/times flowing in and out of Wangfujing Street each day. Wangfujing Street has the biggest commercial premises, the most densely concentrated large-sized shopping malls, hotels and franchised stores in Asia. Wangfujing Street is also a large-sized shopping site with the closest connection with domestic commercial tourism agencies. It is also the most concentrated place of national brands and time-honored brands in China. This high-grade and top-caliber internationalized commercial street is the sister street of Champs Elysees in France. In this 810-meter-long modern commercial street are standing Sun Dong An Plaza, Wangfu Female Department Store, Muslim Mansion, Beijing Department Store, Foreign Languages Bookstore, Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, etc.
Beijing government started to expand and revise Wangfujing in 1996. The 1-billion-yuan investment has freshened the long-standing commercial street: Oriental Plaza has become a new highlight; The Traditional Beijing Street has been transferred to the underground with the operational area expanding to 2,700 square meters from 500 square meters. It is entirely decorated in the Ming and Qing Dynasty construction style, with 40 time-honored shops. Here you can buy shoes from Neiliansheng and Buyingzhai, hats from Majuyuan, silk from Ruifuxiang, scissors from Wangmazi, tea from Yuanchanghou, pickles from Liubiju, cakes from Daoxiangcun, etc. Just like Eiffel Tower and Avenue des Champs ELysées in Paris, Wangfujing Street is well-known all of the world. For many foreigners, paying a visit to Wangfujing Street is an integral part of their agenda in Beijing just like climbing the Great Wall.
When walking in Wangfujing Street, you can feel the considerate care of designers: You can easily take an independent seat when getting tired. You can dispose your trash conveniently as there’s a garbage can every 40 meters along the street. You can easily find your location by reading from the direction boards. There are 18 IC phone booths by the roadside, with which you can conveniently connect with your friends.
There’s a Catholic Church with a strong European flavor in the street. It is called Dongtang Cathedral, which was built up in 1655. Due to its classic European construction style, it has become a popular site for taking wedding photos. Some people have put a purple vintage car outside the church as a perfect background for wedding photo.
Wangfujing Street was also known as Morrison Street in English in the era of Yuan Shikai. In 1897, the Australian journalist George Ernest Morrison started to work in Beijing on behalf of the Times. In 1912, Morrison was employed by Yuan Shikai as a political consultant. He actively offered suggestions for Yuan Shikai’s plan of restoring monarchy. After Yuan Shikai came to throne successfully, he honored Morrison by renaming Wangfujing Street to Morrison Street, and put up English guidepost in the street. Now few people still remember this foreign name.
Wangfujing Snack Street is an impressive section of Wangfujing Street. All snacks with local flavors of Beijing and other parts of China are being clustered here. It covers an area of 2,000 square meters. Besides delicacies, you can also find lots of tourism souvenirs and folk craftworks in the street. Some craftsmen are displaying their special skills here. You can well entertain your mouth and eyes here. The Snack Street has converged traditional Beijing architecture features and folk culture. A 10-meter-plus high archaized decorated archway is standing in the entrance of the street. The street is divided into several portions, all of which are in the basic tone of Ming and Qing Dynasty style.
4. 前门大街 Qianmen Street (Qianmen Dajie)
Qianmen Street is a famous commercial street in Beijing. It is in the axle line of Beijing city. The street starts from Yueliangwan in the north and ends at Tiaoqiao Lukou in the south. Before the construction of the exterior city of Beijing in 1550, it was the imperial road for the emperor to go to offer sacrifices in the Temple of Heaven. After the completion of the exterior city, it was the main north-south street of the exterior city. It is 1,600 meters in length and 20 meters in width. It was officially called Zhengyangmen Street in Ming & Qing Dynasty and the Republic period, though the citizens called it Qianmen Street. It was officially named Qianmen Street in 1965.
In Qing Dynasty, many professional markets gradually formed beside Qianmen Street, such as fresh fish market, meat market, fruit market, cloth market, pig market, grain market, jewelry market, sunflower seeds market. Then in the alleyways nearby, many artisan workshops, warehouses, hotels, assembly halls, theaters, etc., showed up.
Many time-honored shops such as Quanjude Duck Restaurant, YongAnTang Herbal Medicine Shop, Liubiju Pickles Garden, Tongrentang, and Ruishengxiang loomed up in the street. In late Qing Dynasty, a night fair came into being there. In 1901, a railway station was set up at Qianmen, and Qianmen Street became the traffic hub connecting Beijing with other provinces. Thus the street got more and more crowded.
In Ming Dynasty, those officials whose home towns were not in Beijing built up assembly halls to resolve the boarding problem for students from their home towns coming to Beijing to participate in nationwide tests. This promoted Qianmen Street to become a prosperous commercial street.
In Qing Dynasty, Beijing government transferred the Lantern Fair of Dongcheng District to Qianmen region. To protect the dignity of imperial power, theaters, tea gardens and cathouses were only allowed to be opened outside the main city. Thus Qianmen Street saw further prosperity.
Now Qianmen Street has undergone a complete updation and renovation, changing back to the style several decades ago. It has been transformed into a pedestrian street. No cars but the “Ding Dang Bus” is allowed to shuffle in the street. Many time-honored brands will show up in the street soon.
How to get there?
You can take Bus No. 2, 5, 8, 9, 17, 20, 22, 48, 59, 66, 67, 69, 71, to reach Qianmen Street. Subway Line 2 will also take you there.
5. Dashilanr 大栅栏商业街
Dashilanr is a well-known commercial street outside Qianmen. It is to the south of Tiananmen Square. The street is 275 meters long from east to west. Since its foundation in 1420, Ming Dynasty, it has grown into a genuinely prosperous commercial street after five centuries of evolution.
Dashilar has an average passenger volume of 100,000 or so each day. It is not only well known in China but also in the world. It has a special charm that can keep it prospering in the 580-year history. There’s old saying in Beijing: Watch shows at Tianqiao, and go shopping at Dashilanr. That shows the importance of Dashilanr in the mindset of Beijing local people.
Dashilanr has eight key time-honored shops, i.e., Tongrentang, Zhangyiyuan, Neiliansheng, Ruifuxiang, Buyingzhai, Daguanlou, Goubuli and Zhangxiaoquan. The eight shops’ total operational area accounts for 27.7% of the whole street, and their combined annual turnovers account for 75% of the total income of the street.
Tongrentang Pharmacy was opened in 1669, which was well reputed for its self-made pills, powders, paste, etc. Majuyuan Hat Shop was opened in 1811, which customized hats and shoes for the royal family and top officials. Ruifuxiang Silk Store was opened in 1893. Neiliansheng Shoes Store was opened in 1853, which specially made shoes for the royal family and high-rank officials. Some time-honored shops such as Rui Fu Xiang Silk Store, Neiliansheng Shoe Shop, Liubiju Pickles and Rongbaozhai are still keeping its 100-year luster in internal and external decorations, while some other time-honored shops such as Tongrentang, Zhangyiyuan, and Yueshengzhai have changed their traditional decorations. Some local delicacies from other parts of China such as Goubuli Stuffed Bun from Tianjin are also finding their locations at Dashilanr. With the overall improvement of Beijing’s business environment, the center of retail business is no longer in the Qianmen region, and Dashilanr’s commercial status has been declining.
Besides shops, Dashilanr was also once an entertainment center of Beijing. In history it had five large-sized theaters. The earliest cinema of Beijing---DaGuanLou is also located in Dashilanr.
In recent years, Beijing government has plunged considerable capitals to upgrade Dashilanr. Now Dashilanr is shining with both traditional and modern glamours, attracting clients home and abroad.
6. 西单 Xidan
Xidan is a core commercial center in Beijing. It owns many supermarkets and department stores. Different from Wangfujing, it allowed buses and cars to run across.
The history of Xidan commercial street can be traced back to Ming Dynasty. At that time Xidan was in the distribution route of commodities transported from other parts of China. Thus some shops, hotels and restaurants were opened to treat travelers.
Nowadays, Xidan region has many top-notch commercial buildings such as Xidan Shopping Center, Xidan Books Mansion, Grand Pacific Department Store, Zhongyou Department Store. Large quantities of young people come here for fashionable clothes every day. You can get there by taking Subway Line 1 and get off at Xidan Station.