秀水街 — Attraction in Beijing

The Silk Street Market in Beijing is unlike anything else us westerners are familiar with. There are certain types of goods that you can purchase and offer great value, but BEWARE! I do not recommend buying any "high end" electronics here, as they are often imitations that are not warranted and do NOT function as promised. In fact, I would highly recommend avoiding any purchases of an electronic nature here.

Clothing, Textiles, Toys, and other basic items are a great buy - and mo matter what you do, do not pay the full asking price for anything. Understand that a great deal of these goods are imitations of real products, and they're typically asking for the full MSRP of the "real thing".

Tip: Purchase eye-wear here. Do it, you will not regret it whatsoever. In america, when you purchase a pair of glasses, you have to provide the merchant with your prescription, order the glasses, wait several days or a couple of weeks - and then finally pick up your glasses from the store later. (not to mention paying $300 usd for some frames) Here at silk street, you can find HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of frame choices, and get your PRESCRIPTION EYE-WARE put together with HIGH QUALITY LENSES in 5-10 minutes for under $40 USD. I was blown away by the quality of the frames, and the lenses for the total cost I had paid. Such a wonderful experience, and HIGHLY recommend coming here for prescription eyewear.

Other note: Keep your eye on the stitching & quality of the garments. There are a lot of items that at a glance look nice, but once you take a closer look, there are a lot of things wrong. One garment I was looking at was BEAUTIFUL and had perfect stitching, with great fabric quality, I offered 200 RMB but the seller refused the sale. He was asking for a rock bottom 500 RMB. The item "looked" "real", and "felt" "real", and I am almost willing to bet it was. There wasa reason he wouldn't sell it to me - it was a great piece...

Silk Market Beijing, aka Silk Street, Xiushui Street or Xiushui Market, is a prosperous shopping market in the city, located at No. 8 East Xiushui Street, Chaoyang District. Used to be an outdoor market, it now becomes a shopping mall, which accommodates over 1,000 retailers and is regarded as one of the symbols of Beijing together with the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and roast duck. Many foreign visitors, including some celebrities, enjoy Silk Market Beijing for shopping or having their clothes tailor-made. The former president of the US, George Bush, once went there with his daughter to buy some silk robes, and the wife of Jacques Rogge (8th President of the International Olympic Committee) also went there to buy traditional Chinese dough figurines. Although there are a variety of goods in Xiushui Street, the most attractive goods are silk. Even a silk museum was built on the third floor. 18 retailers who have been offering high quality silk over many years are located there, including some time-honored Chinese brands like Ruifuxiang, Shengxifu, and Neiliansheng. Ruifuxiang specializes in making high quality silk. Predominantly making caps, Shengxifu, a ninety-year-old shop, is famous for its selection of material and handmade craftsmanship. And Neiliansheng, established in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), is famous for its Chinese cloth shoes. On the third floor, you can buy authentic Chinese silk clothes like Tangzhuang suits and cheongsams. Or you can have the tailor's shop make something for you or someone in your family in no time. One can also experience the traditional methods of silk making in the Silk Museum, and learn about this ancient Chinese art.

As well as silk, other traditional Chinese articles like tea, porcelain, Chinese paintings and calligraphy, Chinese jade, etc. are available on the fourth floor. Some specialty Chinese skills can be found on this floor, such as...

For Zi Sha tea pot lovers, this is one of the most educational shops you can go to. The owners are keen to share information about each vessel they sell. It's more of tea culture education than a tea pot shop.

This store is located in the basement level and just opened in Sep 2024. It's part of a museum.

When we visited, the two owners were there: Mrs Liu Guangning & Mr Li Yu. Mrs Liu is very passionate about all things Zi Sha clay and very knowledgeable about all types of clay.

She came to love Zi Sha tea pots especially because she started drinking tea 20+ years ago. She had a stomach illness which was improved by drinking red tea. As she became more educated about tea she realised that the quality is tea ware needed to match the quality of tea. She learned more about Zi Sha clay quality and began to use it exclusively for her health.

The teapots ranged in prices and comparable to overseas or cheaper considering the skill levels of the artists. I'm comparing it to prices of Chinese teapots I've seen in Australia, Malaysia and Japan.

They also have some teapots from the Seven Old Chinese Zisha Artists. They lived during the Republic of China period, which should be the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s of the last century.

There are many stores here and each person will find there favourite. In terms of tea, this is one which focused more on tea pots, not holding a broad range of tea ware, tea, tea souvenirs. So they're focusing on quality clay tea pots, very friendly, keen educators of tea culture. I didn't feel pressured at all to buy. The knowledge they gave us was to educate us and the symbols, the history of the shapes, the founders of these shapes and styles. Never about how great it is to buy, but more to learn.

Thank you Mrs Liu and Mr...