The main principle of the trade in Beijing is as simple as only possible: a thing costs as much as one is ready to pay for it. One of the brightest samples is the souvenir market near the closest to Beijing segment of the Chinese Wall. The Wall repeats the relief of every mountain, that is why it is quite difficult to climb certain upper sites - there are nearly vertical zones, you have to clutch at with your hands and feet. The same souvenirs are sold at the Wall’s foot and on top of it. But on the top the goods are some 10 times less expensive than at lower stages. And the beverages have absolutely another picture. The same thing happens in Beijing. There are luxurious department stores, located near the hotel complexes, and common shops.
The quality of things will be perfect, so will do the price. One of 3 central streets houses the largest stores, hotels, drug-stores, bookshops and many others. There is also vast pedestrian zone. According to the statistics, daily this place is visited by 500 000 people.
There are huge, several-storey souvenir shops. All this “front trade” is intended for the tourists, who often do not know the real prices and might buy things and souvenirs at an exorbitant price. I managed to put my foot into it with the memory card for my camera: having explored some shops for this card – I chose the cheapest variant and bought it for 1450 Yuan. In some days I started familiarization with the remote Beijing districts and found the same at 800. That is why the tourists in Beijing search for specially designed markets.
The antiques fans should visit another central street. Here you can buy the real “antiquities” (very expensive – from several hundreds Yuan for a small thing) as well as skillful counterfeit of the antiquities. Such things are skillfully performed: the copper or ceramic pots are literally breathing with antiquity, coins and other metal artifacts are covered with patina, the wood things are polished and even slightly cracked.
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