Specialized shopping questions: jigsaw puzzles, puppets, beads?

[teachinator]

So I'm about to leave Beijing and there are a few special things I would like to buy for the people back home. If anyone can suggest where I might shop for these items here in Beijing, I would appreciate it.

1) My mother likes to do jigsaw puzzles, so if they have such things in China, I would love to find her one with a Chinese them.

2) My aunt is an artist and puppeteer, so if there are any places to buy good puppets (like marionettes used by performers, not children's hand puppets), I'd like to visit it.

3) My sister-in-law makes jewelry, so if I can buy her some nice beads (that she can't get just as easily and cheaply on the internet), again, I'd like to know. I know you can find some at the Silk Market (top floor), but I wonder if there are shops just for beads that might have better prices and more variety.

Also, is there a good toy shop somewhere where I might find fun and unusual items to take home?

Thanks!

[elina]

Also, is there a good toy shop somewhere where I might find fun and unusual items to take home?

Don’t know if you could find fun and unusual items, but the price is cheap there.

红桥天乐玩具市场

http://www.8j.com/external/EnterpriseInfo/S52b334a50cbfd876010cc2636ce30317.html#no4

[teachinator]

Thanks Elina; if I can't find interesting toys there, I probably can't find them anywhere.

[teachinator]

Because I was going to meet a friend, when I went shopping on Saturday I ended up at 金五星百货场(Jin Wu Xing Department Store) in the Haidian district near Beijing Normal. This was a fun place. It was the usual huge (enormous) warehouse with hundreds of small vendors, but not horribly crowded like some, even on a Saturday. Along with clothes and shoes and household items, they did have quite a few bead sellers as well as small toy stores, and I was even able to buy something I've been searching for: a motion-sensor stuffed toy that hangs in the doorway and calls out “您好！欢迎光临!” (the "Welcome!" every shop and restaurant shouts to customers) when activated. I know, we all have different aspirations in life.

Anyway, there were very few lao wai in this store, and there was none of that 'grab the foreigner' hello-hello ambience that makes places like the Silk Market unpleasant to me. I enjoyed shopping there. By the way, they close at 6 p.m.