Shopping in China ranges from extraordinary to completely fake depending on where you go and what you’re buying. The tourist souvenir shops near major attractions are overpriced and generally selling low-quality mass-produced items. But if you know where to look, China has some of the best artisan goods anywhere — silk, tea, ceramics, and calligraphy that are genuinely worth buying and bringing home.
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Open Table of contents
Silk: Suzhou Is the Legitimate Capital
China has been producing silk for over 5,000 years, and the quality difference between genuine silk and the synthetic versions sold at tourist markets is enormous. Suzhou, an hour from Shanghai by high-speed train, is the historic silk production centre of China and the best place to buy.
What to buy:
- Silk scarves: ¥200-800 for genuine mulberry silk; tourist-market silk is ¥30-80 and feels completely different
- Silk embroidery (苏绣, Sū xiù): Suzhou embroidery is a recognized art form; pieces range from ¥100 (decorative) to many thousands (museum-quality double-sided embroidery)
- Silk bedding: Silk quilts (丝绸被, sīchóu bèi) are a classic purchase; a good quality double-quilt is ¥800-2000
How to identify genuine silk: Genuine silk burns slowly and smells like burnt hair; synthetic fabrics melt and smell of burning plastic. At legitimate shops in Suzhou, staff will demonstrate this with a lighter if you ask.
Best shopping in Suzhou: The Suzhou Silk Museum (苏州丝绸博物馆) has an attached shop with quality-controlled silk goods. The Guanqian Street area has retail silk shops, though bargaining is necessary.
Tea: What to Buy and Where
China produces the world’s best tea — and also enormous quantities of low-grade commercial tea sold in gift packaging at airports. Knowing the difference matters:
Tea regions and their specialties:
- Longjing (Dragon Well) tea, Hangzhou: The most famous Chinese green tea. Buy from the Longjing Village tea farms near Hangzhou’s West Lake in April-May after the first harvest. Genuine pre-Qingming (before the Qingming Festival) Longjing costs ¥300-1500 per 100g for premium grades.
- Pu-erh tea, Yunnan: Aged fermented tea from Yunnan province; good quality cakes (饼, bǐng) ¥80-500 for a 357g cake depending on age and estate. Xishuangbanna and Puer City are best for buying directly.
- Tieguanyin (Iron Goddess) oolong, Fujian: From Anxi in Fujian province; buy at tea shops in Xiamen or directly from Anxi. ¥100-600 per 100g for mid-to-premium quality.
- Keemun (Qimen) black tea, Anhui: Classic Chinese black tea; excellent gifts for tea lovers at home. ¥60-300 per 100g.
Tea buying tips:
- Good tea shops will always let you taste before buying — if they won’t, walk out
- Price is not the only indicator of quality; some excellent teas are modestly priced
- Buy vacuum-packed where possible for travel; loose leaf in a sealed tin travels fine
Avoid: Airport gift tea packaged in red boxes saying “premium Chinese gift tea” — these are usually low-grade commercial product at massively inflated prices.
Porcelain: Jingdezhen for the Real Thing
Jingdezhen (景德镇) in Jiangxi province has been the porcelain capital of China — and effectively the world — for over 1,700 years. The characteristic blue-and-white porcelain pattern originated here. Visiting Jingdezhen, seeing the kilns, and buying directly from artisan workshops is a genuinely excellent experience.
What to buy in Jingdezhen:
- Tea sets: ¥80-600 for genuine hand-painted sets
- Decorative vases: ¥150-2000+ for artisan work
- Contemporary ceramics: Jingdezhen has a thriving young ceramics artist community; the Taohao Ceramic Alley and San Bao Ceramics Institute area is excellent for this
You don’t need to go all the way to Jingdezhen for decent porcelain — the Panjiayuan antique market in Beijing and Dongtai Road antique market in Shanghai both have ceramics sections with fair quality ranges.
Antique porcelain: Genuine antique ceramics cannot legally be exported from China (pre-1949 items are protected cultural heritage). Most “antique” ceramics at markets are reproductions. Buying them is fine; trying to export them as genuine antiques is not.
Jade: Avoiding the Tourist Traps
Jade (玉, yù) is one of the most culturally significant materials in Chinese history — and also one of the most prolifically faked tourist products. Most of what’s sold in tourist shops as “jade” is either:
- Artificial glass or resin — obviously fake, usually being sold as “jade bracelet” for ¥10-30
- Genuine but low-grade nephrite or serpentine — technically jade but not the valuable kind, sold as premium quality
Genuine high-quality nephrite jade (软玉, ruǎnyù) and jadeite (硬玉, yìngyù) are expensive — a quality jadeite bracelet costs ¥2000-20,000+, and anything significantly under that at a tourist stall is not what it claims to be.
If you want to buy jade: Go to a reputable jeweller with certification (ask for a certificate of authenticity and material testing), not a tourist market stall. Major department stores and jewellery chains (周六福, Luk Fook) sell certified jade with material testing.
If you just want something decorative in a jade-like material: There’s nothing wrong with buying a ¥30 item that looks nice, knowing it’s not genuine jade.
Mao Memorabilia and Cultural Revolution Collectibles
Panjiayuan Market (潘家园旧货市场) in southeast Beijing is China’s largest and most famous antique and collectibles market — open weekends 06:00-18:00. It’s an incredible browsing experience regardless of whether you buy anything.
Items worth looking at:
- Mao badges (毛主席像章): Red enamel badges produced in the hundreds of millions during the Cultural Revolution. Quality ranges from ¥5 to several hundred yuan for rare versions. Completely legal to buy and export.
- Cultural Revolution propaganda posters: Original vintage posters ¥100-600; reproductions ¥20-80
- Old photography and paper ephemera: Republican-era photographs, calendars, and documents
- Old Chinese coins and currency
- “Peasant paintings” from the Cultural Revolution era
Bargain at Panjiayuan — the opening price is approximately twice what the seller will accept. Start at 40% of the asking price and meet somewhere in the middle.
Electronics and Tech Products
Beijing’s Zhongguancun tech district and Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei electronics market are legendary for electronics. Prices are competitive but not always cheaper than buying at home for brand-name products — the advantage is availability of Chinese brands (Xiaomi, DJI, Huawei) that aren’t well-distributed elsewhere.
Good buys:
- DJI drones — genuine and cheaper than buying abroad
- Xiaomi products (power banks, earphones, smart home devices)
- Phone accessories and cables — genuinely cheap
Caution: Apple products at grey-market street stalls are frequently fake. Buy electronics at official brand stores or major retailers (JD.com physical stores, Suning, Apple’s official stores) rather than from individual market stalls.
Fake Luxury Goods
The question everyone has: yes, you can buy fake luxury goods in China — fake Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Gucci are openly available at certain markets (particularly Silk Street Market/秀水街 in Beijing and similar places in Shanghai). The vendors are persistent, the quality ranges from obvious to surprisingly convincing.
The legal risks: Importing counterfeit goods into most Western countries is illegal. Customs confiscations are real and fines are possible for significant quantities. A single personal-use item is unlikely to be seized but there are no guarantees.
The ethical dimension: Counterfeit goods directly harm the original brands. Whether that concerns you is your call.
Most travelers who buy fakes buy them as a curiosity or as obviously ironic. Just know the legal risk before packing a fake Rolex.