Category Archives: Shopping in Guilin

Shopping Tips in Guilin

T-shirt booth in the West Street.

Souvenir during Guilin Tour: T-shirt from West Street

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One of the interesting tour souvenirs during the Guilin tour would be a T-shirt from the West Street.

There are many T-shirt shops or booths along the sides of West Street which have become one of the unique features in Yangshuo. Owner and artist will paint or write something on the blank T-shirts there and then according to your taste, like portraits or opinions.

T-shirt booth in the West Street.

Some opinions are very funny like “No beer, No happiness”, or the front says “I’m rich” and the back tells “Actually I’m lying”, or “Laowai’s coming” in the front, “ Laowai’s gone” in the back.

What would you like to show on your T-shirt?

Yangshuo West Street

West Street in Yangshuo

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West Street is the oldest street in Yangshuo with a history of more than 1,400 years. Situated at the center of Yangshuo County, West Street has become, since the 1980′s, a window of eastern and western culture and the biggest ‘foreign language center’ in China. West Street is the most prosperous district in Yangshuo, and, each year, approximately 100,000 foreigners come here on their travels or to attend advanced studies. Visitors are attracted to West Street by its unique mix of cultures.

West Street is 517 meters (1,696 feet) long and 8 meters (26 feet) wide, meandering in an ‘S’ along its length. Being completely paved with marble it is a typical example of a southern China street. It is greatly admired by foreigners for its simple style and courtyard-like setting. There is a saying about West Street that ‘half is village while the other half is stores’.

Because, at times, foreigners outnumber Chinese, West Street is also called ‘foreigners’ street’. Don’t be surprised if you hear English words spoken by elderly Chinese women, for West Street is called ‘the global village’. Besides the local accent of Yangshuo, English has become the language for daily use. West Street is modern and fashionable, nearly every store has bilingual shop signs, and more than 20 stores have been opened by foreigners who have settled here.

Read more about West Street including how to get there and what you will have to pay.

Article by travel China Guide

Yangshuo West Street Shopping

Guilin Shopping: The What and Where to buy Guide

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Article from China Highlights

Guilin is a relatively small city, and many of the shopping places are located along Zhongshan Road (中山路), a major road and city center of Guilin. Besides some big departments, there are also some interesting small markets and pedestrian streets. As a city famous for its beautiful landscape, Guilin is famous for landscape paintings, paper fans and some other art crafts and souvenirs.

Local Specialties

Guilin’s three treasures are Guilin Sanhua Liquor, Guilin Fermented Bean Curd and Guilin Chili Sauce. They are one of the top choices to buy when you visit Guilin. Because the name of Guilin literally means ‘Forest of Osmanthus’, there are many products made of or from the fragrant osmanthus (桂花, pronounced as /gway-hwua/), such as osmanthus tea and osmanthus sugar.

Luo Han Guo (罗汉果, pronounced as /lwo-han-kwo/ ), is a kind of dried brown fruit with round shape, hard but thin shell, and the size of a small orange. It is has long been used as a natural sweetener in China due to its flavor and lack of food energy. It has also been used in traditional Chinese medicine. Its inside soft substance is often used to make tea, which can relieve sore throat and chronic coughing. All the local specialties can be found in large supermarkets or local specialties stores.

Where to Buy

Clothes & shoes

Guilin Department Store, Dream Island Department Store and Sino-Japanese joint venture Niko Niko Do are the up-market department stores of the city. They all locate along Zhongshan Road from south to north. They offer clothes, shoes and bags with good quality. The three department stores all have food supermarkets on their underground floors. At Niko Niko Do, there is a small section selling imported foods, candies, chocolates, cheese and so on. Zhengyang Pedestrian Street next to city central square has some small boutiques selling ethnic crafts and clothes, and there are some restaurants with local Guilin food.

Bagui Building standing opposite city central square is very popular among local girls. It offers clothes and bags that are considered fashion by the local girls and are at reasonable prices. There is also an underground market called “Little Hong Kong” under the city central square. The underground market is a maze of alleys with lots of stalls selling not very good-quality clothes, bags, shoes and trinkets at low prices. Always remember to bargain unless when you are shopping at department stores.