Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street in Guangzhou is a prosperous commercial street. It starts from Shangxiajiu Road in the east, and ends at Dishipu W. Road in the west.
With a history of more than one hundred years, it is one of the most bustling commercial streets in China. It is also known as the Xiguan Commercial Corridor. Over 1200 meters long and with more than 300 shops, Shangxiajiu has a group of old famous stores, such as the Yong''an Department Store, the Guangzhou Garment Store, the Herring Shoes and Hats Store, and the Dalu Clock and Watch Store.
It also has some famous restaurants such as the Guangzhou Restaurant, the Taotaoju Restaurant, Wenchang Chicken, and Taotao Ginger and Onion Chicken. Many top state officials including Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Ye Xuanping, and Tung Chee-hwa have visited the place.
Beijing Road is a popular street in Guangzhou. When the sun set with the curtain of night drawn, you would see busy traffic and shoppers packing both sides of the road, and an array of neon lights dazzling your eyes.
Beijing Road has been one of the major commercial streets in Guangzhou. There are two well-known shopping malls in the street. One is Guangzhou Department Store located on the south side of the street, and the other, Xin-Da-Xin Department Store, on the north side. Both state-owned department stores were built after China embarked on reforms and open-to-the-world policies.
In the middle of Beijing Road, large scale bookstores like Xin-hua Bookshop and Education Bookshop can still manage to stay in Beijing Road despite the great commercial impact, but the Foreign Language Bookstore had retreated to the second floor of its original site. Judging from the walls of the bookshops you can imagine the vicissitudes of the city. A great variety of books can be found in these bookshops.
The whole street is lined with chain stores. From fashion to leather products to snack bars...whatever you like can be found here. Differently priced products make it easy to find a bargain. Sometimes you may run into a special sale, especially on weekends or holidays.
The Xihu flea market is also a must for lovers of small trinkets. Here on sale are plenty of toys, ornaments, shirts, and some useful tools that you are not likely to find elsewhere. Also, these small things are very cheap, which is another reason why this street attracts so many visitors. Beijing Road also has convenient transportation. Taxis and buses are still available at midnight.
Wende Road Culture StreetWende Road originated in the Qingli period of Northern Song Dynasty, on the east side of then Guangzhou Confucian Temple, and called Xuefudong Street at that time. Wende Road is at the center of ancient Guangzhou district and has profound historical basis.
There are private Jiaozhong School established in the 28th year of Guangxu Period (Guangzhou No.13 Middle School today), Guangzhou School Palace (Guangzhou No.1 Labors』 Cultural Palace today), Wende Building and Sun Yat-sen Documents Museum along the road. To the north are site of Dockyard of Qin Dynasty over 2000 years ago, Site of Nanyue Kingdom Palace, the only underground stone-structure architecture comparable to ancient Roman town and earliest site example of kingdom palace in China, and Town God Temple.
To the east are Panyu School Palace (Training Center for Peasants Movement), Examination Hall, Lu Xun Memorial Hall, Guangdong Provincial Museum, and Sun Yat-sen Library. To the west are Beijing Road Pedestrian Mall, Dafo Temple and Ancient Medicine Lake.
Wende Road of today is called 「The first cultural street in Guangzhou」. This road is lined with 300 shops dealing in cultural goods, including some large emporiums for business of high-grade curio, calligraphy, painting and the four treasures of the study such as Guangzhou Antique Shop Head Office and Wenyue Xuan, and numerous medium or low-grade shops of cultural goods. At present its eglomise business has great effect on the domestic market and enjoys a high reputation in the trade.
Jiangnan Dadao Wedding Dresses StreetThe "Street of wedding dresses", located at the northern end of Jiangnandadao road, is the biggest distributor of wedding dresses in Guangdong province.
This special wedding dress street, formed in the early 1980s, was one of two overseas Chinese roads in Guangzhou at that time. Overseas Chinese living there could contact with the outside world frequently. Those having a relatively stronger economic sense, made use of their own gardens and lawns to build up the shops of wedding dresses. In the very beginning, these shops were no more than manual potteries, with a business at the front and a factory in the backyard.
However, as time went by, more and more people came here for wedding dresses. As a result, the style of the dresses became more and more diverse and some famous products from Hong Kong, Taiwan and even the Southeast were also available.
The price of the wedding dresses here are diverse to. Most of the goods are at the middle and lower ends of the price range, but there are also some high-class wedding dresses.
Cantonese who are going to get married will look here first and they will buy a dress if it suits their taste and budget. Some foreignness even ask their Cantonese friends to buy dresses for them. The Street of wedding dresses is famous and known to all.
Competition between shops is fierce, but each shop has its own characteristics and its own way of attracting customers. Wedding dresses that are on show at the store front are rarely of the same type. Most of the goods are western wedding dresses and evening attire, others are Chinese cheongsams (Qi-pao). To buy a wedding dress here, you are likely to pay about 600 to 800 yuan. To order a dress takes about two weeks. The price can be halved if you just rent a dress. There are many benefits and attractions.
Tianhe RoadHere Grandview and Teem are the top largest shopping malls in the city and Grandview even the No.1 in South East Asia. They are only about 300 meters away from each other along Tianhe Rd. in the north and Tianhe Nan 1 St. in the south. A Galaxy of stylish apparels, shoes, jewelleries, watches, food, furniture, home items, mobile phones and so on attract tens of thousands people to walk in through the MTR station just underground and developed bus and road system around everyday.
You can spend a day there, fascinated and experiencing with the brands like Levi's, Swatch, Shiseido, Swarovski, Le Saunda, Haagen Dazs, Starbuck and stores like Watson’s, Manning and Jusco in these sharply decorated malls.
Between Teem and Grandview is Hongcheng Plaza, a similar modern mall with relatively lower pricing for your additional choice.
Out of the grand arcades you can walk at ease into the Tianhe Nan Yi Rd. in the south and further into the roadside Liuyun Circle. You will be greeted and obsessed by the little shops of original wears and home items, chocolates workshops, cafes and bars in the tree-shaded communities, full of life and taste. The bargainable price here is as attractive as the goods.
North to the Teem Plaza stands the seven-floor Guangzhou Book Center, the biggest place for wide range of books., including some bargain-priced art books in English.
Places:
Teem Plaza
Grandview Mall
Hongcheng Plaza
Guangzhou Book Center
The shopping circle is located in Zhongshan-4 Road, east to Beijing Street. China Plaza is well-received for the fashionable garments and accessories, home items. Many of them are original and up-to-date while some are local designers' signature works.
JUSCO, a Japanese department store, gives you a wide range of quality goods for your needs at the second and third floors.
Its basement leads to the underground update Mall, which is the biggest and highest-profile subway mall in China. It expands to the Lingyuanxi station and is crammed with vogue brands of wear, Salon and cosmetics.
Mobile phone is another shopping focus of the circle. Lingyuan-xi Street, northwardly opposite to the China Plaza, is the biggest market of this kind in Guangzhou. You can find almost all sorts and brands of mobile phones and accessories that are available in China at the specialty franchises and stores lined along the west side of the street. The 4th Floor of China Plaza is another cellulars world to match Lingyuan-xi.
West to the main entrance of China Plaza you have the "Mouse Street" (Laoshu Jie). It is also known as "women's street" (Nu Ren Jie), where Guangzhou's modern ladies hit the rails with cost-effective price. Hundreds of tiny stores sell locally produced, Japanese-brand clothes, shoes, and accessories. It's cheaper than Beijing Road, but more crowded. Bargaining is essential.
Open hours is 10:00 am -6:00 pm.