Beijing Commercial Centers - Beijing Silk Street (Xiushui Street)

City Guide - Beijing - Shopping
Silk Street is a shopping market in Beijing, which locates in No. 8 Xiushui East Street, Chaoyang District. It accommodates over 1,000 retail vendors in the market. It is the one of the symbols in Beijing together with the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and roast duck.

Replacing the old Xiushui Market, the current Silk Street was open on March 19, 2005. The new Silk Street has enlarged its scale of business, adding traditional Chinese handicrafts, antiques, calligraphy, carpets, paintings, hand-knit dresses, toys, trinkets, and fine jewelry. Reputable establishments such as the Tongrentang Pharmacy, Quanjude Peking Roast Duck restaurant, and multi-national coffee and restaurant chains such as Lavazza, SPR Coffee, Subway have their shops there.

The Silk Street now has 6 floors in its building with different categories of articles selling. Here is a layout of these shops.

Floor One: Clothes, Boutique Corridor, Cafes, Patisserie, Information Desk
Floor Two: Clothes, Boutique Corridor, Children’s Wear, Toys, Huaxia Bank, Currency Exchange, Manicure & Pedicure
Floor Three: Tailor’s Shop, Silk Culture Museum, Silk Boutique, Silk Carpets, Ties & Scarves, Chinese Traditional Stores
Floor Four: Jewelry, Arts & Crafts, Folk Handicrafts, Tea & China, Painting & Calligraphy, Jade Articles, Electrical Appliance, Digital Products
Floor Five: International Jewelry Exchange Centre, Watches, High Order Watches, Bags & Suitcases
Floor Six: Peking Dark Restaurant, Tongrentang Pharmacy, Patio Pizza
B1: Shoes, Suitcases &Bags, Supermarket (Chinese Delicacies), Hats, Leatherwear, CD/DVD Shop
B3: Parks

Although there exist a variety of goods in the market, but the most attractive goods are silk. Even a silk museum was built on the third floor. 18 long well-known shops, serving high quality silk, locate there, including some China timehonored brands like: Ruifuxiang, Shengxifu and Neiliansheng. Ruifuxiang is shop which specialized in making high quality silk. Focusing on making caps, Shengxifu, a ninety year-history shop, is famous for its selection of material on handmade craftsmanship. And Neiliansheng, established in Qing Dynasty (1644 ~ 1911), is famous for its Chinese cloth shoes. In the third floor, you can buy the real Chinese clothes made in silk like cheongsam, too. Or you can make a suit of clothes for yourself at spot in tailor’s shop. Besides, you can also experience the traditional procedure of making silk in the Silk Museum to know the Chinese silk culture better.
Apart from silk, people can also purchase other Chinese traditional articles like Chinese tea, porcelain, Chinese paintings and calligraphy, Chinese jade on the fourth floor. Some Chinese specialty skills can be found on this floor, too such as painting by palms.

Many foreign visitors like going there to make clothes including some celebrities like George Bush. Roger’s wife also went there to buy dough figurines (Small figurines made by dough).

If you want to enjoy the most Chinese like style of shopping, the first and the second floor cannot be missed. In these two floors, you can bargain with the shoppers freely in Boutique Corridor. Here are some tips that you’d better consider when you shop in it:
1. The most basic and important skill here is bargain. You don not have to feel shy or embarrassed when you bargain with them. It is very normal and you’d better try your best to cut the price to 10% below their offer.
2. You should have a mental preparation that almost all the goods here are imitations or fakes. Because they gain local and international reputation for selling counterfeit luxury designer brands at relatively low prices. But you still can buy something very worthy.
3. Remember to go to different shops to ask the article’s price you want to buy. In this way, you can buy the product in the lowest price. Meanwhile, remember to check the quality carefully and ask for better ones, if the products are not perfect.
4. When you buy electronic products in the market, you should be more careful to check the quality. However, if you pay attention to the shape instead of the quality. You can buy anything you like without hesitation. But remember to bargain no matter what kind of article you buy.

There are restaurants in the market, so you can have a rest in them when you are tired.

Bus Route:
1, 4, 9, 28, 37, 43, 120, 126, 205, 639, 640, 668, 673, 728, 729, 802, 810 (get off at Yonganli Stop)
Subway:
Line 1 (get off at Yonganli Stop)
Opening hour: 9:30 ~ 21:00