Saturday, October 27, 2007

Shopping in Beijing

We managed to do some shopping during our stay in Beijing, Oct. 17-20. Silk Street was a short taxi ride from the hotel. This is a wonderful tourist trap, where one can buy jewelry, clothes, luggage, electronics, Chinese gifts, and much else. There are over 1,700 merchants. The clerks can be aggressive, but all in good fun. Prices are determined by haggling, in English if desired, or by passing a calculator back and forth with the latest bid/offer displayed. It was usually more crowded than is shown in this photo:

There were several small, upscale malls within walking distance of the hotel. We had dinner in a Korean restaurant in the mall shown below. This mall seemed to be like any Western mall, selling mostly clothes and jewelry. Unlike Silk Street, it did not appear to be targeted at foreigners.

Other places that people went (alas, no pictures) included a huge weekly flea market and a Wu Mart store (groceries, household goods) across the street from the hotel.