Vacation Home Rentals

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Jul 22

With slick new malls opening all over the city, Beijing definitely is a shopper’s stop. But one street in particular is right next to some of Beijing’s most famous hotels, and it keeps the style of the old.

Suppose you want to shop somewhere with a little history, somewhere where you can get lost in antiques and traditional Chinese art forms. History for Beijing’s liulichang street traces back to the early Ming dynasty in the 16th century, and there is no shortage of unique Chinese gifts here.

For centuries, the street remained one of Beijing’s most prosperous shopping grounds. 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 found nowhere but Yixing, and the shop carries a large collection of teapots made of this clay and from their own kiln. The owner himself is a well-know teapot maker in Beijing.

The designs of their teapots are pretty unique. There you will find shapes imitating pumpkins, gourds, stumps, and castles, to name a few. 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 cab ride from Hwa Apratment Hotel.

In the shop, you’ll find paintings of plums, orchids, chrysanthemum, as well as bamboo; they all are the work of our master - Mr. Xie.

Mr. Xie owns this shop. He specializes in painting many flowers, but what he is the best at and he loves most is painting peony. He’s spent more than a decade observing the flower so as to create works that are true to nature.

Not everyone can accomplish such an achievement!

Upon your request, Mr. Frame works, and scroll works which is easier to carry, are both available in the shop.

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.

There you will find a nice array of products with designs that are rarely seen outside of China. For example, a bowl is engraved with a pair of fish that are unique to a small river in Longquan. Another teapot looks like a big river snail. It is very likely that you wouldn’t recognize it at first sight!

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 made by an ancient technique. New cracks keep showing up ever since a celadon ware is made, but the ware won’t break into pieces as the glaze holds it into one piece. The cracks only add up to a more gorgeous looking item.

Anyone who comes in will be served a cup of tea for free. The manager is a young, nice lady. Quite a celadon expert, she knows celadon well and is kind enough to tell whatever you hope to know.

posted by Vacation Home Rentals on Jul 20

For Beijingers, shopping is a serious part of life, somewhat as sports to athletes. For several hundred years, Beijingers have been coming back to the same street not far from the Beijing Emperor Hotel for items ranging from paintings to daily-use items.

As an old Beijing saying goes: buy shoes at Nei Lian Sheng, hats at Ma Ju Yuan, fabrics at Rui Fu Xiang, and tea at Zhang Yi Yuan, which are all famous brands on this street, called Da Zha Lan.

Right near the Forbidden City, it’s very easy to find Da Zha Lan and the shops that have been in business for hundreds of years.

Take a quick stroll from the Beijing Redwall Hotel, past Tian’anmen Square, and you’ll arrive in no time.

Da Zha Lan is Beijing’s oldest commercial street, dating back to the early Ming dynasty in the 1400’s. As unique as its name sounds, Da Zha Lan literally means ‘big fences’.’ About 600 years ago, thefts in the city were rampant, so the emperor ordered fences to be built to prevent the thieves from getting in. Residents in the Da Zha Lan area built fences that were higher and stronger, and thus people began to dub the area ‘big fences’ for easy reference.

Today, as it was in the past, the street is packed with teahouses, theatres, tailor shops, silk stores, restaurants, and handicraft shops. They nestled against each other in ancient buildings that immediately bring you to old times!

The Shops

Nei Lian Sheng

The 160-year old shop Nei Lian Sheng just a few minutes walk from the Beijing International Hotel sells handmade cloth shoes. Their shoes are celebrated for the expert craftsmanship and superb re.

In old times, shoes made in Nei Lian Sheng were great hit with officials who worked in the imperial palace not far from Da Zha Lan. Not only are the shoes are of outstanding quality, but also the name suggests something all officials dreamed of: rising along the ladder of power.

Today, workers use the techniques refined over the years to makes shoes with elements drawn from fashion trends. The late Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping loved the comfort of Nei Lian Sheng shoes and ordered many pairs here.

Ma Ju Yuan

The hat shop Ma Ju Yuan was built in 1817. A small stall at first, the shop soon earned a name that made it the supplier of the ‘red turf hat’ to be worn by Qing government officials.

That was probably why old Beijingers took a hat made in Ma Ju Yuan as a showy object.

Throughout the years, the shop has made hats for princes, religious figures, and numerous foreign leaders. Even today, Beijingers prefer to buy their hats at Ma Ju Yuan like they have been doing over the past century.

Rui Fu Xiang

Established in 1891, the shop sells all kinds of top-quality fabric: cotton, silk, woolen cloth, and so on.

The shop supplied the cloth that made China’s very first flag, which was raised in its nation-founding ceremony in 1949.

The shop has an excellent team of tailors who make some of the most beautiful cheongsams in Beijing. Numerous international travelers are amazed by their products and can’t help but owning one of their own to show off back home.

Zhang Yi Yuan

In 1900, Zhang Yi Yuan came into business. Ever since then, the shop has been some of the best tea you can find in Beijing. Every year, they get to the heartland of tea-growing regions and buy tea leaves directly from local growers. This allows them to have tea leaves grown in a natual enviroment and picked at its best time to pick.

They apply special techniques to process tea leaves, which is sought after by many tea lovers. Now there special jasmine tea is sold at a low price and is worth trying.

Da Guan Cinema

Da Guan Cinema, Beijing’s first cinema, was established in 1905. It is even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for its length of continuous operation.

Today, the original decor can be found throughout the cinema, and while watching the film, you can order a cup of tea as people used to do in this great venue. Each day more people come to for a unique experience of watching a movie in Beijing’s oldest cinema.