Like all major cities in China,
Chengdu is a shopper's paradise. You can pretty much
buy anything and everything. There are two main shopping
districts in Chengdu - The hip and popular shopping
districted named "Chun Xi Lu", located close
to downtown Chengdu, and another wholesale district
called "He Hua Ci".
We're at the center of the Chun Xi Lu Shopping plaza.
It's a four way intersection - in the photo, if
you walk down either left or right side you will
head to different directions of the district. In
the back ground are department stores, and street
stands promoting different sales events of the surrounding
stores. On that particular day, all the stands were
promoting professional wedding photos.
Chun Xi Lu Shopping District in
Chengdu
Chun Xi Lu shopping district is
probably many blocks in size. It's organized according
to the four directions north, south, east and west,
and the two main entrances to the district (where
the taxi drops you off) are the north and south Chun
Xi Lu. The shopping district is very clean and organized.
The roads are wide and spacious, there are large commercial
buildings on both sides. Only foot traffic is allowed
within the shopping district - no cars are allowed.
A photo of Chun Xi Lu at night time. I'm not sure
when the district closes at night, but this photo
was taken at around 8pm, my guess is around 9 or
10pm. Or perhaps even later.
There are all types
of shops: clothing shops, jewelry shops, beauty salons,
electronics stores, department stores, restaurants,
and snack food stands.
He Hua Ci - Wholesale
District
This is where you find all the bargains
in Chengdu. At He Hua Ci, individual shoppers, and
wholesale buyers from stores gather and shop for whatever
it is that they need. He Hua Ci is much larger than
Chun Xi Lu, I really don't have a clue to exactly
how large this place is, but I'm guessing around 20
blocks in size or larger. You'd have to spend days
there just to see everything.
Photo taken at a intersection of He Hua Ci. It's
hard to depict all the stores and wholesalers in
the area because they're everywhere! The place is
huge!
The wholesale district is organized
in to categorized sections such as office supplies,
footwear, clothing, sports equipment, toys, house
ware, and so on. The only section I had a chance to
visit is mainly the footwear and clothing sections,
which took almost an entire day.
This was a photo of a footwear store at the wholesale
district. I thought it was funny and interesting.
I had a good laugh at the name, and the logo.
This place is a paradise
for those that love to drive a hard bargain. You can
bargain the price for one item, or bargain even more
for multiple quantities. No price is set in stone!
The best part about it, is that because the district
is organized into categorized sections, the competition
is extremely fierce. You'll find an entire block of
merchants selling the same products. So you can easily
bargain from shop to shop until you get the best price
on what's already cheap products
One thing to keep in
mind though, however, is that the merchants will usually
try to take advantage of the shoppers - especially
foreigners. So you must ask around for the prices.
For example, for a pair of track pants I bought, one
store had the price at $80 Yuan, another store was
selling it for only $50 yuan - for the exact same
pants! I still bargained it down to $40 yuan in the
end. So, when you're shopping at these types of places,
shop shop shop, make sure you're getting the best
price.
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