GOING TO BEIJING!!!

[Kristoffer]

I'm going there next summer with my kung fu 'school'. We'll live in the center of B somewhere.. Does anyone know where to buy:

* weapons? Or anything MA related? Do u know any stores? Adresses?
* Clothes?, (cheap brand-names) and chinese clothes.. Uhm, and old traditional clothing etc.
* ~Silk~ I know that there is a silk market, what is the price on it? Can u bargain here? any tips?
* street crap? :D like tourist stuff that u can buy?
* Art? Like scrolls with texts on them.


Ahhh :( my head is exploding here.. Any help I will gladly take. What did you think of Beijing? What did u do when u where there? sooo many questions.. :rolleyes: ~Thank you

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[Kristoffer]

ttt

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[sean_stonehart]

Kristoffer... I only spent 3 days there, but for weapons & MA related stuff, I believe the area around the Beijing Physical Education University (Probably mislabeled) where the Beijing Wushu Team is HQ'd will be a good shot. If you can get to Tian Tan park or Jing Shan park, there will be some store around them that carry jians & such since they're popular for morning martial arts.

The Silk Market has some stuff, but I didn't look around it too much. I made a cursory pass thru it on the way to dinner my last night in Beijing. AS far as bargaining goes, in most places if you don't they'll be insulted. However a lot of the stuff I saw in the Silk Market stalls is American knock off products. If you go to the Beijing Friendship store just down the street from it, about the best you can get is 10% off. If your tour guide offers to help or is willing to help, you can get a little more.

As far as the "street crap"... just walk out of your hotel near most any "touristy" area & it'll come to you. Trust me. ;) At times that can get really annoying.

Do you know where you're staying? What part of Beijing? Are you going anywhere else while you're in China? How about Tianjin, Shaolin, Xian, etc...???

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.

-- H.L. Mencken

[Kristoffer]

Thanks man!
I dont know if we will be going anywhere else, they said that if many wanted we could do this, going to Hong Kong, Xian, Shanghai etc.. But I dont want to do this because then we will miss a couple of days (the last weekend) of training. It is mainly a training trip. We are there for two weeks and we train every day except the weekends I think.
(go up at 6.00, training with internal arts, breakfust at 8.00 then 8.30-13.00 ¨hard¨ training (Shuai Shiao and 5 animal Kungfu, weapons, tecniques, forms etc)

We are, however free to continue our trip in China on our own when our group goes home. But I have not planned for this (+ I dont know if I'll come up with the money for it)
It is not decided where we'll live yet, but they said we will probebly live in the center/in the middle of Beijing :D

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[sean_stonehart]

Center of Beijing?? I'm guessing in the area of the Forbidden City (oops... People's Archetectural Museum) maybe? If so, the Silk Alley emptys on to Jianguomennen street which is the road between the Forbidden City & Tian'amen Square. Easy to find.

Tiantan is south of Tian'amen on between Qianmen and Chongwenmennei. On the northside of the park, you might find what you're looking for at the Hongqiao Antique Market & just up the street from there at the Yuan Long Silk company. They're in the Zhushikuo area just off the Chongwenmennei.

Be careful about the antique things though. If it's a real antique, it won't leave China most likely. Gene wrote an article a year or so ago about swords & ran through some of the things about "antiques" & the like.

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.

-- H.L. Mencken

[Kristoffer]

Cool..
(im gonna keep harassing you BTW) ;)
Do u know where to find "traditional" clothes? Like mandarin jackets and such?

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[sean_stonehart]

There were some "traditional" clothing at the Friendship stores I went to. I didn't buy any there because of the price & the flat 10% discount. The Silk Market had tons of clothing, but most of the stuff I saw in the front of the stalls was Western knock offs. I'm sure they had more "traditional" items, it's just I wasn't really paying attention. You can probably find stuff like you're looking for at the two places I mentioned are Tiantan.

I didn't have a lot of time to rummage for myself since I was with my kungfu school & our tour guides, while great, were a little anal when letting us loose on Beijing. By the time we got to Shaolin & then Xian, we had staged two mutanies & we were given more free time on our own.

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.

-- H.L. Mencken

[Kristoffer]

We get to do whatever we want (almoust), So after 13.00 we are free :)

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[Raffi]

The Beijing Wushu team doesn't train at the Beijing Sports University, (the Beijing sports university wushu team does though), the Beijing Wushu team trains at the ShiChaHai sports center, which is right next to the ShiCha Hai (Lake), just north of the back gate of BeiHai park.

If you're looking for cheap weapons and other martial arts related stuff, in addition to some bookstores and other shops near the BJ sports university (which I haven't had the chance to visit yet), there are a bunch of stores near the east entrance to the Summer Palace (like 3 or 4 within a block or two), this is a bit out from downtown, but if you're there on a tour or something or hire a cab, shouldn't be TOO expensive to get up there ($5-10 at most). I don't know where I put their addresses, but basically if you get near there you can ask around i guess. One of them is named 'Great Wall (Chang Cheng)' martial arts store. They don't speak much english there, so be prepared.

as far as clothing goes, if you want knockoffs, the Silk Road market (near the US embassy) is the best place for that, be prepared to bargin for everyhthing, don't pay anything more than 50% of their initial price or you're getting ripped off (if you're good, and business is slow, you can get maybe 33%)

Other places good for shopping are the HongXiao market (east of the temple of heaven) or the Wan Tong market at Fuchengmen (if my memory serves me correctly). I liked Wan Tong more, these are basically giant indoor markets (better for winter time) that have more locals and /fewer/ tourists. they also have more household goods and consumer electronics, instead of just clothing. I got some really good deals on DV tapes ($3) and cheap fake g-shocks ($2-3) there last time. Good for small gifts and what not.

-Raffi
www.beijingwushuteam.com (http://www.beijingwushuteam.com)

[joedoe]

If you bargain at the markets, aim to get roughly 1/3 of what they ask for it.

Unless you have an American accent - then aim for at about 1/4 (they jack up the price for Americans).

The silk markets are fun, but there are tons of places to go to - plenty around Tienanmen Square.

cxxx[]:::::::::::>
You're fu(king up my chi