Whether you’re looking for impressive souvenirs, unique Chinese novelty items or just some great fashion bargains, Guangzhou’s streets and shopping malls will provide you with what you need. Guangzhou’s main shopping center can be found at Beijing Road Pedestrian Street, the venue of a host of local shops, including the Mayflower Plaza, which sells anything and everything and is also a favorite hangout of fashionable young people. The Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street is another popular shopping area that offers a wide range of products. If you know how to bargain, you will fit right in. This is also where you will find Liwan Plaza, located at 9 Dexing Road, a place that’s famous for its crystal products. This entire area is a beautiful snapshot of traditional Cantonese architecture.

 

Guangzhou Qingping Market

 

On the side of pretty Pearl River, Qingping Market is located at the crossing of Qingping Road and Tiyun Road. It spans about 1000 meters, covers an area of 11200m2, with 1200 sales counters. It is a market special for agricultural and sideline products and traditional Chinese medical materials, famous in the whole country for large scale, complete variety and good service.

 

This market was built in 1979. During the over 20 years since the reform and opening-up its transaction volume has increased year after year and become a significant distribution place for agricultural and sideline products and traditional Chinese medical materials with large scale, flexible transaction and broad coverage in Guangzhou. It deals in more than 600 varieties, including Chinese medical materials, fresh and dried fruits, fresh meat, eggs, poultry, aquatic products, seafood, preserved foods, vegetable, ceramic, jadeware, arts and crafts, flowers, birds, insects, cereals, oils, oilseeds, bran, and flour. It stands in fore rank of agricultural and sideline products markets of Guangzhou in market scale, stall quantity, listing goods quantity, business variety, quantity and volume of transaction. The Chinese medical materials market was approved by “1 ministry and 3 bureaus” of the State Council in July of 1996 to become the first batch designated special market of Chinese medical materials.

 

Qingping Market attracts political VIPs and visitors all over the world to come by its various agricultural and sideline products and distinct oriental flavor. Leaders of China central government once inspected Qingping Market, officers of over 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, and many government officers, councilors, consulates, professors, journalists, and social celebrities from Britain, USA, Germany and other countries, such as former Prime Minister of Japan Toshiki Kaifu, ministers of Commerce, Transportation and Territorial Regulation of France, visited this market.

 

Qingping Market is a unique window in the southern gate of our country. Its continuous growth and vigorous vitality represents the prosperity of our socialist market economy and transfer information of increasingly abundant life of the Chinese people.

 

Guangzhou Liuhua Garment Market

 

Liuhua Garment Market is the largest indoor garments wholesale market in Guangzhou. It is located in Liuhua district around Zhanqian Road, Zhannan Road and North Renmin Road, with a floor area of about 15000 km2, including Baima Trade Building, Tianma Building, Fashion Whole Center, Heima Building, Hongmian Bubugao Fashion Plaza, Guangzhou Garment Display Center, Baima West-Suburb Building, Jinma Leather Wear Center and 14 large wholesale markets. There are over 12000 shops, 20000m2 indoor business area, collecting about 10000 garment businessmen, more than 50000 practitioners, delivering over 40 tons of garments to places all over the country every day. Its daily turnover reaches RMB 200 million Yuan and annual turnover is above RMB 10 billion Yuan. There are not only foreign capital enterprises from Guangzhou, Shantou, Huizhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhuhai, Shunde and Panyu, but also manufacturers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Its customers come from 30 provinces, cities or autonomous regions such as Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet, and Russia, Eastern European and Southeast Asian countries and regions.

 

Guangzhou Nanfang Tea Market

 

Nanfang Tea Market is located at Shiweitangjie Shancun, Fangcun District of Guangzhou. It has a floor area of 60000m2, a special market with multi-function of business and tourism.

 

In 1940s, there were only several home-made tea workshops by local villagers in manner of shop-factory and manufacturing-selling combined. Since the reform and opening-up and the medium and later 1980s especially Nanfang Tea Market has made a rapid progress, increasing its shops to current over 500 from a few decades in the past. Its complete supporting facilities, warehouse, process workshop, parking, professional transport, and kindergarten and primary school nearby, facilitate businessmen’s trade, living and their children’s primary education.

 

As the largest tea market in China, Nanfang Tea Market collects tea merchants and tea set manufacturers all over the country and has become the most influential distributing center of tea and tea set in China. This market is divided into three parts: tea section, tea set section, and tea Artwork Street.

 

Tea Section:

Tea merchants from all corner of China gather here with their various varieties of tea at all levels, including some high-quality famous tea such as Longjing green tea of Hangzhou, Tieguanyin tea of Fujian, Dongting oolong of Taiwan, Huangshan Maojian, and Baishalu of Hainan. Tea can be classified into six categories: green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea, scented tea and compressed tea.

 

Guangzhou Xiguan Antique Town

 

Located between Fengyuan Road crossing and Longjin West Road, Xiguan Antique Town in Guangzhou is a cultural market for shopping, exchange and appreciation of artifacts and a new tourist district combing human sight, traditional culture with tourist shopping.

 

The antiques at service include ceramic curios like sacrificial vessel of Shang Dynasty, tripod caldron of Zhou Dynasty, bamboo slips for writing on of Han Dynasty and porcelain of Song Dynasty, folk craftworks and supervised cultural relics like stoneware, wood carving, coin, emerald jade, brocade box, inscriptions of past generations. Exhibition, authentication and auction are held irregularly here.

 

In Antique Town there are Ancient Renwei Temple built in the Song Dynasty, Wenta Park build in the end of Ming Dynasty and beginning of Qing Dynasty, Small Painted-Boat House build in the Qing Dynasty, most representative traditional residential house in Guangzhou for recent 100 years———Xiguan Residence Reserve, Liwan Museum, delightful Liwan Lake Park, and the largest garden restaurant in China Banxi Restaurant. It is a tourist line of ancient culture and traditional folk custom with multi-purpose of sightseeing, shopping, appreciation, bite and sup.

 

Daxin Road Haopan Leather Auxiliaries Street

 

Located in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou Daxin Road Haopan Leather Auxiliaries Street is a famous street special for leather, hardware and shoes materials. Haopan Leather Auxiliaries Street has a long history. As early as in the Qing Dynasty Haopan Street was renowned for business of cowhide shoes. In the early period of the Republic of China (1912-1949) the leather of Haopan Street was transported to other countries by way of Hong Kong and gradually it became a famous Commercial Street in southern Guangdong. After 1949, Haopan Leather Auxiliaries Street made great progress. Since the reform and opening-up, many shoes, leather goods and handbag factories in towns in Pearl River Delta arose. They needed a large number of leather material and thus flourished Haopan leather, hardware and shoes Material Street, so this street entered a rapid progress. Nowadays, this market has developed to a “three streets & one road” leather, hardware and shoes material market with Haopan Street as principal and including Xiaoxin Street, Yudaihao and Daxin Road. The top 10 “Shoes Kings” of China use the shoes material provided by leather, hardware, and shoes material businessmen here to produce famous high-grade brands such as “Great Wall” and “Senda”. It is called that the development of this street takes the lead in leather, hardware, and shoes material industry in China. At present there are 746 businessmen on this street, and annual turnover is nearly RMB 200 million Yuan. It is a bright peal in the kingdom of leather, hardware and shoes material.

 

Daxin Road Haopan Leather Auxiliaries Street of today attracts more and more clients, within or without Guangdong Province, from home and abroad, by high quality, reasonable price and excellent service.

 

Yide Road Seafood & Dried Food Market

 

Yide Road Seafood & Dried Food Market, also called Haiwei Road, is famous “Seafood & Dried Fruit Street” in the history of Guangzhou. It stretches from Haizhu Square in the east to Haizhu South Road in the west. This 1000m-Long Street is lined with 200 shops and 5 indoor wholesale markets with 1600 varieties of seafood and dried food. Its seafood and dried food wholesale business occupies 70% of the total in Guangzhou. The month prior to the Spring Festival is peak period for seafood and its sales amount accounts for 30% of the whole year. Yide Road is very bustling, what trademen carry or lift with hands, trolley, motorcycle or wagon are all seafood and dried fruit purchases for the Spring Festival. The market collects non-staple foodstuff and sundry goods from every corner of the country, from Australian tiger shark’s fin and Dalian sea-ear of the Bohai Sea at a price of as high as RMB 1000 Yuan per 500g to central China vermicelli, south China lotus seed, northwestern citron daylily and southwestern dried tofu at a price of less than 10 Yuan…Yide Road has every delicacies from land and sea that you expect to find, no matter it is high-grade seafood or cheap homely dried foodstuff. Yide Road has become well-known seafood and dried food specialized street in China.

 

All Guangzhou residents know that Yide is the first choice for cheap seafood. So many shops and stalls constitute hot competition; both quality and price are better than large shops or producing areas. Many housewives are frequenters of Yide. They often come here to buy high-grade seafood or cheap subsidiary foodstuffs and go back with fruitful results, and the price is comparable. Even Hong Kong housewives often troop to Yide to buy seafood and dried fruit, for Yide’s goods are fresh, good, and cheaper than those in Hong Kong, even if with traveling expenses added, and full in variety.

 

Huadu Nanfang Flowers Trading Center

 

Huadu Nanfang Flowers Trading Center is located in the west of Xinhua Town, Huadu District, with a floor area of 506000m2. It is one of the ten projects for invigorating large communications of Guangzhou, with a total investment of RMB 200 million Yuan, a modern large trading market and flowers sightseeing place combining exhibition, wholesale, retail, storage, transportation, quarantine, business affairs, technical training, information exchange, with sightseeing. This center has 4 sections: foliage plant wholesale market, floriculture market, flower auction center, and flower culture and art park. As you know, the reason why Huadu is called so is that it is kingdom of flowers from the past to present. It, as Fangcun District, is traditional flower production base of Guangzhou. Since the reform and open-up Huadu District Government paid much attention to flower production and sale for domestic and international markets, and built Huadu Nanfang Flowers Trading Center to guide the flower production industry of Huadu to a promising progress.

 

Huadu Shiling (International) Leather Products Center

 

Huadu Shiling (International) Leather and Leather Products Center is a leather and leather products wholesale market with largest scale, highest grade, most complete modernization management facilities and international professional level in China. It is located in Shiling Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, covering an area of over 700mu, and will be built into a large leather and leather products base integrating production, manufacturing, selling and warehousing. Phase 1 project finishes about 500 stores of 83000 m2 that have been brought into service already. Since it opened in December of 2000, this center mainly deals in raw and auxiliary materials of leather products and attracts merchants from about 20 countries and regions such as USA, France, Italy, Brazil, Hong Kong and Taiwan to visit and do business negotiation, and some large Chinese manufacturers have set up businesses in the center. It has become a specialized market noted in home and abroad. It is important base of production and sale of leather and leather products in Asia and one of four specialized wholesale markets in Guangzhou. On September 10, 2002, Shiling Town of Huadu District is awarded the title of “Chinese Capital of Leather Products” by China National Light Industry Association and China Leather Industry Association. It is the first and only to get such honor for leather and leather products industry of Guangdong Province.

 

Hualin Jadeware Street

 

Hualin Jadeware Street stretches over 500 meters from Xilaizheng Street in the south to Xinsheng Street on Changshou West Road in the north, world-famous jadeware trade and distributing place. Along the street stand 142 jadeware shops, with nearly 1000 jade jewelry stalls in, of which the largest is Hualin Jadeware Building that has about 400 stalls. Moreover, this street has about 200 temporary stalls, mainly centralized in the central greening corridor before Hualin New Street and Hualin Temple. These outdoor jadeware stalls set off jadeware shops on either side to form a unique market feature of Guangzhou. Hualin Jadeware Street has become one well-known jade and jewelry distributing point in Guangdong and even in China. Its trade has radiated to every corner of the country and Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.

 

Yuansheng Ceramic & Jadeware Street

 

Yuansheng Ceramic & Jadeware Craftwork Street, located between Kangwang Road and Wenchang North Road, echoing with Hualin Jadeware Street, is nearly 1000 meters in total length and deals in folk ceramic, jadeware and craftwork.

 

You can find ceramic from Shiwan and Jiangdezhen, tea set from Yixing, agalmatolite and bloodstone from Fujian, Burmese jade, bamboo carving, wood carving, copper carving, ivory carving, four treasures of the study, paper currency, stamp, even badge with somebody on it here. A lot of various tings gather together. Especially wood carving, stone carving, copper carving, red porcelain teapot and agalmatolite are batch sold to USA, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries and regions.

 

Wende Cultural Shopping Road

 

Wende Road originated in the Qingli period of Northern Song Dynasty, on the east side of then Guangzhou Confucian Temple, and called Xuefudong Street at that time. Wende Road is at the center of ancient Guangzhou district and has profound historical basis. There are private Jiaozhong School established in the 28th year of Guangxu Period (Guangzhou No.13 Middle School today), Guangzhou School Palace (Guangzhou No.1 Labors’ Cultural Palace today), Wende Building and Sun Yat-sen Documents Museum along the road. To the north are site of Dockyard of Qin Dynasty over 2000 years ago, Site of Nanyue Kingdom Palace, the only underground stone-structure architecture comparable to ancient Roman town and earliest site example of kingdom palace in China, and Town God Temple. To the east are Panyu School Palace (Training Center for Peasants Movement), Examination Hall, Lu Xun Memorial Hall, Guangdong Provincial Museum, and Sun Yat-sen Library. To the west are Beijing Road Pedestrian Mall, Dafo Temple and Ancient Medicine Lake.

 

Wende Road of today is called “The first cultural street in Guangzhou”. This road is lined with 300 shops dealing in cultural goods, including some large emporiums for business of high-grade curio, calligraphy, painting and the four treasures of the study such as Guangzhou Antique Shop Head Office and Wenyue Xuan, and numerous medium or low-grade shops of cultural goods. At present its eglomise business has great effect on the domestic market and enjoys a high reputation in the trade.

 

Shangxiajiu Road

 

It is known that Guangzhou is famous commercial city in ancient China, well-known for developed economy and commercial tradition of long standing. In Shangxiajiu Road Pedestrian Mall you can experience traditional business charming of Guangzhou and see fascinating folk customs of Xiguan.

 

This noted commercial street is located at Xiguan old town. It stretches from Shangxiajiu Road in the east to west Dishifu Road in the west, and traverses Baohua Road and Wenchang Road, about 1200 meters in total length. There are over 300 shops in this district. It is the first pedestrian mall approved by the Ministry of Commerce of China in Guangzhou. Its daily traffic is as high as 600000 person-times. You’d better not look down on this small street, for it is a collection of Lingnan architectural culture, Lingnan dietary culture and Lingnan folk customs.

 

Terrance architecture is constructed to bestride the sidewalk and form a pedestrian corridor, adapted to the heaven-rain and high-temperature subtropical climate in Guangzhou especially. In addition, shops within the sidewalk are convenient to open wide the door to receive customers. Existing Xiguan terrace architecture is a mix of Chinese style and western style in the end of Qing Dynasty and beginning of the Republic of China (1912-1949), combining Chinese Manchurian window, parapet wall, grille window and fencing with western exterior decorative pattern and cast-iron grille balcony.

 

Beijing Road in Guangzhou

 

Beijing Road is central axis of ancient Guangzhou city and the most prosperous commercial distributing center in the history. Reputed “Famous Street of Lingnan”, its average traffic is about 350000 person-times per day, and is the most bustling pedestrian mall in Guangzhou, covering Zhongshan No.4 Road, Zhongshan No.5 Road, Xihu Road, Jiaoyu Road, Yushan Market nearby and commercial points around. Yuehua Road in the north of the pedestrian mall is once downtown of Guangzhou from Nanyue Kingdom period of the Western Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Beijing Road is the main street in Guangzhou in Tang, Song, Yuan and Qing Dynasties, and therefore has become the most prosperous cultural pedestrian mall of Guangzhou since Ming Dynasty.

 

Around Beijing Road Guangzhou’s colorful historical views and cultural relics remain. According to historical materials and expert researches, there are over 10 existing or established or excavated historical or cultural sites around Beijing Road, Jiaoyu Road and Xihu Road, such as Panyu City of Qin and Han Dynasties, Site of Dockyard of Qin Dynasty, Site of Nanyue Kingdom Palace, Site of Qinghai Military Tower of Tang Dynasty, and Royal Garden Site of Southern Han Kingdom, all of high historical and cultural value. At the same time, many time-honored shops of China and old and famous stores of Guangzhou converge here, including Yushan Market, earliest food market in Guangzhou, century-old Chen Li Ji, Tai Ping Guan, and San Duo Xuan stores, and Xindaxin Company, one of the most famous department stores in Guangzhou in 1940s. All these old and famous stores familiar to the Cantonese have witnessed the historic changes and civilization progress of Guangzhou for long.

 

Article Info

Title: Introducing Beijing

Author: Johnping

Last updated: 12/13/2013