The most-visited shopping area in Beijing isWangfujing Street, east of the Forbidden City. The south section is a pedestrian-only commercial avenue lined with clothing outlets, souvenir shops, fast-food restaurants, and two very popular malls -- the Sun (Xin) Dong An Plaza and Oriental Plaza (Dongfang Guangchang). Dong Dan North Street, a long block east, is a strip of clothing boutiques and CD shops popular among fashionable Beijing youth. On the western side of town is the mirror image of Dong Dan, bustling Xi Dan, and farther north, Xinjiekou Street.
Sanlitun is a new shopping and entertainment complex in the heart of Beijing's famous bar district. On any given evening you will run into a fascinating cross section of Beijing all commingling inSanlitun’s courtyard: migrant workers walking through after a hard day's work, Beijing yuppies shopping for new threads, and local expats sipping on iced lattes.
South of Tiananmen is the newly constructedQianmenStreet. Originally built in 1436, it is one of the city's oldest commercial streets. All the buildings here are new, but modeled after traditional Chinese architecture.
Other major Westernized shopping areas include the section of Jianguomenwai Street between the Friendship Store and the China World Trade Center, and the neighborhood outside the Northeast Third Ring Road North, southeast of Sanyuanqiao around the new embassy district.
Beijing's liveliest shopping zone, beloved for its atmosphere and Chinese-style goods, is the centuries-old commercial district southwest of Qianmen.Liulichangis an almost too-quaint collection of art, book, tea, and antiques shops. The stores are lined up side by side in a polished-for-tourists Old Beijing-style hutong, running east-west 2 blocks south of the Heping Men metro stop. The street is good for window-shopping strolls and small purchases -- like the unavoidable chop (tuzhang; stone or jade stamp), carved with your name. In a similar setting but more raucous Dashilan is the prole alternative. Located in a pedestrian-only hutong 2 blocks south of Qianmen, it is jammed on either side with cheap clothing outlets, restaurants, and luggage shops.
Source: frommers.com
