Founded in 1964, BeijingFriendship Storeis located along the famous Jianguomenwai Avenue. Adjacent to the Embassy Zone and CBD, it covers a business area of over 9,000 square meters. It mainly sells various types of Chinese traditional arts and crafts, such as diamond and jade jewelry, gold and silver ornaments, jade and stone carvings,cloisonné enamels,lacquer warecarvings, inside-the-bottle paintings, ivory carvings, exquisite porcelains, classical furniture, four treasures of study, antiques, calligraphies and paintings, drawn-works and embroideries, silk carpets, Chinese garment, renowned Chinese teas and wines, tourist souvenirs, traditional Chinese medicine, high-grade cashmere, and silk products.

You can visit their "workshop" where they make the Chinese art. There you can find Chinese costume as well. One of the interesting items you can purchase is personalized stamps. Stamps are important objects in Chinese culture, just like signatures in Western culture. If you visit Chinese museums, you can see the stamps of Chinese Emperors made of jade, precious stones, or others.

In the store, you can purchase a personalized stamp for yourself. You can choose the material to make the stamp. They have different kinds of material and they are in different sizes. If you have a Chinese name, you can write it down on a piece of paper and someone will engrave the stone or wood with your Chinese name.

It is worth visiting one of the Friendship Store as much for its historical significance as for buying anything there. In addition, it remains one of the few places to have a true Western-style deli (Jenny Lou's shops are another).

The Friendship Store accepts FECs and foreign cash only, not Chinese money, so local people hung around the entrance looking in longingly at the goodies inside, reserved for the oppressed foreigners and the poor unfortunate cadres and government officials who were forced to buy stuff here.

The Beijing store has a Starbucks, Baskin-Robbins, Délifrance, Pizza Hut, and a bookshop which stocks a wide range of English-language magazines and newspapers. It has been announced that the site is to be redeveloped, with the Friendship Store being replaced by a more modern shopping center, offices, and a Conrad Hotel.

What to buy: Souvenir, Art and craft, Chinese costume, personalized stamp

Address: No. 17, Jianguomenwai Avenue

Phone: 86-10-6500-3311

Business Hours: 9:00-20:00