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Living china>Guangzhou>Shopping | |
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Famous GZ shopping streets
Enjoying the fame of "shopping paradise", Guangzhou is the most important
Commodity distribution center in south China.Take advantage of famous Guangzhou
specialty streets. Antique Xiguan Street Very hard to find but once you get there it is worth it. You know you are getting close when you are surrounded by local women all chanting "change money, change money". This place is old China and I mean everything about this place is old, from the street to the shops to the furniture, even the people selling the goods have been around a long time. Five minutes' walk to this antique street from the Changshou metro station. A long narrow lane in the very old part of town. Beijing Road Shopper's paradise. What else can you call it? With most of the shops open from 9:00am to 10:00pm,it offers all day shopping, which is one of the reasons the place is one of Guangzhou's favorite fashion stops. This is obvious on the weekend when a sea of Guangzhouers pack into the 300-meter long street filling the air with shopping fever. With shops covering a wide selection from the top end at Grand Buy, where you can find most overseas brands,to the smaller shops that line the streets and alleys, it's not too hard to find exactly what you're looking for and at the price that fits your budget. Easily accessible by subway with a five-minute walk from the Gong Yuan Qian subway station and just follow the crowds. Guangzhou's biggest audio and video market Covering an area of more than 1,200 square metres, the store has more than 100,000 VCD,CD,LD,DVD and tape titles as well as electronics publications. Located in Guangzhou's busy Nonglin-xialu, the market is operated by a chain-store company under the administration of Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Culture. Haizhu Square market For odds and ends, and what's hot and what's not, this is where it's at and a lot cheaper than at Zhuangyuanfang. This is the gift haven and there is no shortage of everything, it's like an ultra mini trade fair. Here like most places, bargaining is the way to go except sometimes the price is right the first time. If you don't know what you want just wander through and see what is available and you'll be amazed at what you see. It's wholesale market but still they don't mind selling little bits. Located directly to the west of Haizhu Square. Haiyin Book City Haiyin Book City offers everything in print, Chinese books, foreign books,
books on finance, economy, tourism, maps to cities all around the country,
computers, fiction, essays, textbooks, all kinds of magazines, children's books,
cartoons, how-to books, etc. The prices were reasonable, especially if you
purchase in quantity. In general, you could get at least a 20% discount and if
you buy more, you could get as much as 40% off. Haiyin Cloth Market The biggest cloth market in Guangzhou which provides a huge variety of cloth
plus tailoring, designing and cloth processing. It is so far the biggest cloth
wholesale market in Guangzhou. Haiyin Electrical Appliances City This place has everything electrical, from DVDs to air conditioners,
everything you ever want with electrical wires and electronics is there
including all accessories. The idea is to bargain and bargain hard, these boys
know the price and they are after the highest they can get. It's your job not to
pay them the highest price. Huangsha pen and stationery wholesale market If you need pens or office supplies this is the place to go. Just along the road from the Huangsha Subway Station and bus stop and they sell everything you have ever wanted for office or home use. Pens, school bags, printer cartridges and whatever, it's all there. This is a whole sale market so they expect bulk, but don't worry; they never refuse a sale. The best way for the best buy is to ask the price at a number of shops to get an idea of what you expect to pay, but normally they are pretty good. Shangxiajiu pedestrian street Clothes, fashion clothes, factory seconds, plenty of shoes and everything you have ever wanted to buy in here and reasonably priced, but where things are cheap, people gather. This shopping street affectionately known as "up down nine street" by the foreign community, is heart and soul of this city. I would recommend going there when the dusk sets in, as it's most beautiful in the evenings. The illuminated "Riding Buildings" (Qilou) with stained glass look just fabulous. The covered corridors lining the street and connecting shops on either side reflect a combined heritage of Chinese and Western architecture. Tan Carpenter If you have no idea of what to give your friends as a wedding gift, or to take home for your parents or newborn baby, why not drop in on the TAN CARPENTER either on Renmin Lu, Taojing Lu or the newly-opened one on Beijing Rd (there is a chain of five stores in Guangzhou) and find a wood comb there that will fit the bill. Hey, wait, these are not the ordinary wood combs as you might conjure up in your mind. They are very good quality products made from Pear, Rosewood, as well as peach tree. There are a wide variety of styles, cute ones for the young and more elegant ones for the more serious occasions. They all have hand-carved handles with images of the Chinese God of Longevity, the Phoenix, images from the Chinese horoscope or famous persons in China's 5000-year history. So if you buy one comb, it's sort of opening a door of Chinese culture for you. You might say that the price is a little bit high, but you get what you pay for. The Fangcun plant,flower and pet market This is the place to go if you need to give your rather drab apartment the natural look and fit it out with the potted ferns and the potted flowers. Everything comes in pots so it is a bit of a hassel getting it home on the Subway, so don's go overboard with the pennies as most things are reasonable cheap. Also when the lovely little puppies are looking rather cutely at you just remember you have to register dogs so if your neighbours complain that rather cheap excursion to Fungcun could get very expensive, but I have never actually heard of anybody getting a license. Also be warned most dogs are not the standard Peking Dog and after a few months your lovely little puppy might turn into a large guard dog. This place is easy to find and easy to get to just go to the last stop on the Subway, the other end from Tianhu and it is right there. At the moment with summer nearly in full force, if you want the place to yourself you can go there at lunchtime, but I recommend the morning or the evening.
Near the Haiyin Bridge in Dashatou, there is a large-scale flea market where
there are second-hand computers, used cars and telecommunication equipment for
sale, and a whole street where you can buy all sorts of other second hand
goods. Tianhe Book Center Books, books and more books just about wraps this place up, but and this is a big but, there are not too many in English. After a bit of looking around and you have got past the ever-increasing learning English book section you can find a few good ones. If you are into books translated from Chinese to English, check out the four classic Chinese novels. They come in the standard set of four books per novel, or the single abridged book which is quite good for the man or woman on the move. Also old English classics are very popular here, so if it is time to read the ones you have for gotten about, 'just do it' as Nike keeps reminding us. Well, back to the books, there is a whole corner dedicated to English books on the third floor. Yide Lu Toy Market If you are into toys or the little things that children and school kids like, you have to take a walk around this place. It's up the other end of Yide Lu from Haizhu Square by Renmin Road and it is actually a few buildings, not just one big modern market surrounded by little old town markets that look like they have been around for a long time. This is a wholesale place but as always they will sell you one off things at a price of course, so bring out your bargaining skills. Zhuangyuan-fang The place to be if you are under 21,this is where the school kids go during lunchtime and normally you can't move. This place is crowded and I mean crowded so watch the prices here because you are paying for popularity. School kids buy anything and kids these days don't worry about the price so bargaining is a must but the shop-keepers don't like it. Zhuangyuan-fang has a history. It was once a lane where people sold speciality goods like Cantonese Opera costumes and other stage costumes, and temple fair ornaments. At that time, the goods ranged from big things like a whole set of costumes to small items like pearl hairpins. All this has now been reduced to only a few stores selling this type of thing. But the world has changed. Zhuangyuan-fang has become a street for the in-neration, the avant garde, the new, voguey younger generation of Guangzhou. The teenagers who shop here now don't want to be left out of the race for being 'in style' and are forever chasing the ever-changing vogue. Now you can buy anything and everything you don't need as long as it is cute,
fun, colorful, and great including things like Snoopy dogs, Hello Kitty cats,
Pikachu dolls, Puzzle Bobble dragons, Paw Paw Bear key rings, necklaces,
bracelets…and far too many more to name. The clothes are strange, but are
exactly right for the bold taste of young people. |
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