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3.3 Shopping Centre
With its collection of trendy boutiques and accessories stores, this brand new mall in the heart of Sanlitun caters for Běijīng's bright young things. The 5th floor has a selection of tailors who promise a 24-hour turnaround.
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3501 Pla Surplus Store
The Chinese armed forces, the PLA, are the largest in the world and this is where you can pick up some of their kit. Staffed by a cheery crew of middle-aged ladies, it's a good place to find cheap but hard-wearing boots, heavy greatcoats (around Y130 ) - ubiquitous in the Chinese winter, fur hats (around Y42 ), long johns and waterproofs. Binoculars, compasses, knives and watches are also available.
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Alien's Street Market
This market just northwest of Ritan Park is packed to the gills with a huge variety of clothing, as well as tons of accessories. You can find most things here. It's popular with visiting Russian traders, which means the clothes come in bigger sizes than usual and the vendors will greet you in Russian. Haggling is essential.
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Bainaohui Computer Shopping Mall
Four floors of gadgetry, including computers, Ipods, MP3s and printers; blank CDs and DVDs, gaming gear, software and other accessories. The prices are fairly competitive and you can bargain here, but don't expect too much of a reduction. Next to this mall there are a number of shops - good places to pick up mobile phones and local SIM cards.
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Beijing Arts & Crafts Central Store
This centrally located store (the sign says 'Artistic Mansion') is known for its good selection of jade (with certificates of authenticity), jadeite, cloisonné vases, carpets and other Chinese arts and crafts. Jewellery (gold, silver, jade and pearl) is on the ground floor, with glass, paintings, calligraphy and fans on the 2nd floor. You can find woodcarvings, cloisonné, lacquerware and silks on the 3rd floor and jade carvings on the 4th floor.
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Beijing Curio City
South of Panjiayuan and next to the Antique City Hotel, Curio City is four floors of antiques, scrolls, ceramics, carpets and furniture. The ground floor is jade and pearls, the 2nd and 3rd floors are antiques and carpets and the 4th specialises in antique clocks and watches. Popular with tour groups, this is a good place to find knick-knacks and souvenirs but don't assume that all the antiques are the real deal.
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Beijing Silk Store
This big store has been supplying silk since 1840. The silk costs from around Y40 a metre, or you can visit the 2nd floor and pick up ready-to-wear pyjamas and shirts.
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Bookworm
One of the epicentres of Běijīng expat life. Apart from its lending library of 14,000 books, the 'worm has a small but interesting selection of new English-language fiction and nonfiction tomes available for sale. You can find Lonely Planet guides here, as well as UK and US magazines. Also hosts lectures, a classical music club and a poetry reading night. Any author of note passing through town gives a talk here.
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Cathay Bookshop
There are several branches of the Cathay Bookshop on Liulichang. This branch (Gǔjí Shūdiàn), on the south side of Liulichang Xijie opposite Róngbǎozhāi, is worth checking out for its wide variety of colour art books on Chinese painting, ceramics and furniture, and its range of books on religion (most books are in Chinese). Upstairs has more art books, stone rubbings and antiquarian books. The store takes MasterCard and Visa.
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China World Shopping Mall
Adjacent to the first-rate China World Hotel, this is a soulless mall packed with top-name brands, including Burberry, Moschino, Prada, as well as boutiques, jewellery stores such as Cartier (6505 6660; shop L104) and fast food restaurants. The Le Cool ice rink is in the basement.
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Extreme Beyond
This small shop has a good selection of real brand-name hiking boots, waterproof jackets, backpacks and sleeping bags. There's also climbing gear. Prices here are not cheap (eg around Y650 for hiking boots), but the goods are the genuine article. The store takes only JCB cards.
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Five Colours Earth
Stylish clothing with a traditional Chinese twist from a local designer can be found at this store. The sexy tops incorporate embroidery made by the Miao minority in Guìzhōu province. It's good for jackets and coats too. Much of Five Colours Earth's stock is sold overseas, in the US and Italy, but you can pick it up far cheaper here.
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Foreign Languages Bookstore
Shelves here groan with English fiction; Chinese literature in translation, Lonely Planets, and the best range of 'Learn Chinese' materials in the city.
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Friendship Store
The Friendship Store is badly over-priced, but the books and magazines section is worth a look (you can pick up overseas newspapers here) and the supermarket is OK.
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Haoyuan Market
Branching off from Wangfujing Snack Street is this small and bustling souvenir market. There's lots of Mao memorabilia and other tacky tourist tat, but if you're pushed for time and need a last-minute present you might find something. Haggling is imperative.
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Hongqiao Market (Pearl Market)
Besides a cosmos of clutter (shoes, clothing, electronics and much more) and an impressive (and smelly) fish market in the basement, Hongqiao is home to more pearls than the South Seas. A huge range of them are available - freshwater and seawater, white pearls and black pearls - on the 3rd floor and prices vary incredibly depending on the quality.
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Jingdezhen Ceramic City
Just off Wangfujing Dajie, this huge emporium is spread over several floors with displays of well-lit ceramics from the Jingdezhen kilns. Pieces are modern, but many works on view employ traditional decorative styles and glazes, such as doucai (blue and white and coloured), fencai (famille rose) and qinghua (blue and white).
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Lu Peng Trendsetters
Exquisite, hand-tailored qípǎos (traditional Chinese dresses) are the order of the day at this tiny shop. They're not cheap but the quality is superb and Lu Peng is one of the few Chinese designers who specialises in making them these days.
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Lufthansa Center Youyi Shopping City
The gigantic Lufthansa Center was the first Western-style mall to appear in Běijīng. It's looking its age a bit now, but is still a reliable, if pricey, source of upmarket Western clothing and cosmetics and is especially good for sports gear. The Yansha Supermarket in the basement is one of Běijīng's best, while the Yansha (6465 1188) bookstore on the 4th floor is worth a browse. There are restaurants and ATMs here too.
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Neiliansheng Shoe Shop
They say this is the oldest existing cloth shoe shop in China (it opened in 1853), and it has a factory that still employs more than 100 workers. Mao Zedong and other luminaries had their footgear made here and you too can pick up ornately embroidered shoes, or simply styled cloth slippers.
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Oriental Plaza
You could spend a day in this staggeringly large shopping mega-complex at the foot of Wangfujing Dajie. Prices might not be cheap, but window shoppers will be overjoyed. There's a great range of shops and restaurants, the Star City Cinema and Megabite in the basement is a good place to grab a cheap meal when you're in the area. Many top names are here, including Max Mara, Paul Smith, and Valentino.
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Pacific Century Place
This upmarket store has clothing for all, as well as electronics and cosmetics, a pharmacy, laundry and a supermarket. The basement is particularly useful for those with kids; you can find extra-large diapers and sterilising equipment here.
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Panjiayuan Market
Hands down the best place to shop for yishu (arts), gongyi (crafts) and guwan (antiques) in Beijing is Panjiayuan (aka the Dirt or Sunday Market). The market takes place on weekends only and has everything from calligraphy, Cultural Revolution memorabilia and cigarette-ad posters, to Buddha heads, ceramics and Tibetan carpets.
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Peninsula Beijing Shopping Arcade
The big boys of fashion: Chanel, Dior, Gaultier, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Versace, can be found in this exclusive and very hushed basement-level shopping haunt beneath the Peninsula Beijing hotel. There are also Cartier and Tiffany outlets, so you can pick up the diamonds you'll need to go with your new outfit.
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Plastered T-Shirts
Wonder where everybody's got their 'Beijing Subway' T-shirt from? This is the place. Local icons are slapped on T-shirts (around Y80 - Y100 ) in a tongue-in-cheek way that gets expats and locals laughing out loud at the in-jokes.
