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Beijing is a great city for shopping with its tens of thousands of state-of-art malls for residents and tourists alike. But one street in particular is right next to some of Beijing’s most famous hotels, and it keeps the style of the old.

Imagine you’re shopping around this place where touches of old times are everywhere, and antique and traditional Chinese art forms come in huge numbers. Liulichang Street, with a history going all the way back to the 16th century, is Beijing’s storehouse for handicrafts.

Since several hundred years ago, the street has been one of Beijing’s most trodden places for shopping. Today people tread this very street for unique Chinese gifts, including antiques, brush paintings, calligraphies, tea sets, shadow puppets, old books, and a variety of ethnic items.

And it is just the place you’ve been looking for to buy some unique Chinese gifts for friends and family back home!

Here are some of the shops:

Pin Hu Tang – A Good Cup of Tea Made Easy

This quaint shop at the west end of Liulichang Street is where big-time tea lovers go for authentic Yixing purple clay teapots. It’s not far from the Haige International Hotel. 

Yixing teapots are said to be able to improve your tea by allowing tea aromas to build up right in the walls of the pot. The key is the special purple clay they use for the pots: the clay is micro porous and absorbent.

The clay is found nowhere but Yixing, and the shop carries a large collection of teapots made of this clay and from their own kiln. The owner himself is a famous Yixing teapot master.

The designs of their teapots are quite offbeat. There are shapes mimicking pumpkins, gourds, stumps, and castles, just to name a few. And you will find skillful engravings on these teapots: a scene showing harmony between man and nature, a quotation from an ancient love poem, or an auspicious animal mounting the lid to entertain your eyes…

These really are things you won’t find in your back home! No wonder foreign tourists would like to visit and spend some travel dollars here.

Gu Miao Hua Yuan –- Pristine Beauty of Flowers Live On Your Walls

This interesting little shop is tucked away in a 600-year-old building and offers exceptional Chinese flower paintings that have found their way into the homes of many Beijingers. It is just a short cab ride from Hwa Apratment Hotel.

In the shop, you’ll find paintings of plums, orchids, chrysanthemum, as well as bamboo; they all are the work of our master - Mr. Xie.

Mr. Xie is the owner of the shop. Despite he paints on all flowers, what he is best at is still peony, the flower that fascinates him the most. To create on paper peonies that are true to life, our master painter has spent ten years observing the flower.

That is an achievement few can accomplish, indeed!

Upon your request, Mr. Frame works, and scroll works which is easier to carry, are both available in the shop.

Qing Ci Lan Ting – A Lovely Touch To Your Home

This interesting little shop with an old-fashioned façade carries a large collection of celadon products made in Longquan, a southern Chinese town knows as the hometown of celadon.

There you will be fond of a selection of products with designs found nowhere outside of China. The engravings of bowl, for example, is inspired by a special type of fish found only in a small river in Longquan. A big river snail is what another teapot looks like. Without giving careful notice, you wouldn’t know it is a teapot!

In fact, there is a little something for each and every home: a hat-style vase that is nice for holding roses, a pumpkin-shaped jar for placing CDs, and a lotus leaf platter for holding dishes, and so on.

Some products bear cracks. They are made by an ancient technique. The body keeps cracking well after a celadon is done, but never breaks into pieces because the glaze holds it into one piece. The cracks only add up to a more gorgeous looking item.

The shop offers free tea to anyone who comes in and wants to sit down to rest your legs. The manager is a young, nice lady. Quite a celadon expert, she knows celadon well and is kind enough to tell whatever you hope to know.