Xidan Commercial Area, north of
 | XiDan is a very large shopping area and often frequented by real Beijing residents. Here you can find all kinds of things and almost no "especially for tourists" fare. The main focus of the area is 5 or 6 giant malls. These are very old fashioned, Chinese style malls, similar to a US department store. Most have 5 to 7 floors and sell the usual stuff you would expect. Electronics and high-fashion are usually located towards the top floors. If you're brave enough to buy a TV, DVD player or a Hi-fi, there is a good selection in the black glass mall with the large picture of a girl pictured in a later photo below. Probably the mall with the worst selection of everything is the first one you come across (pictured below left). Leave it till the way back, or skip it altogether. |
Inaddition to the main malls, there is a giant mobile phone mall. This mall is pretty much 2 or 3 floors of solid mobile phones. Because of this, there are many shady characters walking the streets asking you if you want to sell your mobile phone. They are of the opinion that anyone entering the large phone mall is going to buy a phone and no longer needs their old one. This is often the case; however most do stupidly ask the people leaving the mall if they want to sell their shiny new one. The phones in the massive phone mall (which is on the left as you walk down the main street) are not very cheap but the full selection is there. The cheapest place for phones is usually the two phone stores in Wangfujing Street. Xidan map
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