Bowl Lid

Liulichang Street: Beijing’s best street to dig treasures

Beijing really is a shopper’s paradise, with tens of thousands of old and new stores serving both residents and tourists. 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.

For hundreds of years, the street remained one of Beijing’s busiest shopping venues. Today people shop from window to window on this very street for unique Chinese gifts, such as fans, brush paintings, tea sets, shadow puppets, antiques, and a variety of ethnic items.

For unique Chinese gifts to bring back, this is just the place for you!

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 unique to Yixing, from where their collection of teapots are crafted. The owner himself is a master potter of Yixing teapots.

The designs of their teapots are quite standout. In their shop you will find shapes modeled after pumpkins, gourds, stumps, castles, and so on. 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! That might be why so many tourists would like to spend their 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 ride away from the Hwa Apartment Hotel. 

There paintings of plums, orchids, chrysanthemum, and bamboo are shown; they are all the work of our master – Mr. Xie.

Mr. Xie is the owner of the shop. He paints a range of flowers, but what he is best at is peony, the flower he loves the most. To create on paper peonies that are true to life, our master painter has spent ten years observing the flower.

This is the fine work of potters using an ancient celadon-making technique!

At your request, Mr. Xie makes both frame and scroll works with the latter being easier to carry.

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.

In the shop you will find a nice selection of celadon products with designs that are seldom seen outside of China. For instance, a bowl bears engraving of a special type of fish that are unique to a small river in Longquan. Another teapot is in the shape of a river snail. Without taking a careful look, 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 the result of an ancient technique. After a celadon piece is done, the body will crack as time goes on, but the glaze will hold it into one piece. The cracks only add to the beauty of the 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. She knows a lot of stories about celadon, which she would like to share with her customers.

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