shopping in beijing

[tinkle]

hi everyone,

i hope to go to beijing this summer and i was wondering how the shopping is there. are "trendy" clothes a lot cheaper over there? cuz if they're dirt cheap i might just go with an empty suitcase and buy all new clothes

[CoffeeRider]

The clothes are cheaper but only if you can bargain pretty well. Most of the stuff is fake though... some of it holds up pretty well and some of it doesn't. I purchased a pair of etnies shoes for about 8 bucks... she started wanting 100 US dollars. They have held up for a long time now. I also bought a Von Dutch hat for 20 yuan... about 2.50. I think it should have been less myself but couldn't for the life of me get anyone to go lower.

Also... don't accept any goods that you can't take out of the packaging and try on. A lot of the time the one they have to look at on the rack isn't the same as what they give you. My friend bought a couple of long sleeve shirts that didn't fit too well

For nice shopping hit Wangfujing

For cheap shopping and all the copied goods hit up the area around sanlituan® and xiushuijie (silk street).

[flibblesan]

I don't know if this is always the case but I found when I tried to bargain with the sellers in Shanghai or Zhengzhou, they would always try and get a large amount out of me. But if I asked my Chinese friend to bargain, she would always be able to get a very low price!

Also when I was in a shop in Zhengzhou that sold fake shirts etc, I was told they were all genuine. The shop keeper also told my friend they were all fakes! I guess the shop keeper didn't realise we were friends haha.

[onebir]

I think you get the lowest prices if

a) you know roughly what the price should be

and

B) you speak passable chinese.

a) alone isn't always enough; shopkeepers seem to use chinese ability as a gauge of how familiar you are with china, and sometimes even refuse to sell you things at the going rate even if you're walking off... Frustrating, but usually the same thing's available elsewhere.

Also it's worth avoiding the really touristy places. I'm thinking of the market opposite the lido hotel in beijing, where some of the stall holders have met so many foreigners their english is pretty good... The same stuff was much cheaper in other markets.

Also be prepared to walk a way. The best price you'll get is often the one shouted at your back after you've turned and said 'tai gui le' a few times... Having said that, if at this stage you still don't buy, it can really piss off the stallholder...

[CoffeeRider]

I think that market across from the Lido is no more, they shut it down to build something else.