Like oil paintings? When you’re in Beijing, don’t miss the city's largest art market. Recently I visited an oil painting shop on the first floor of this market.

The shop owner is Ms. Chen. She told me that all of her oil paintings were created by contemporary Chinese artists. They can be divided into two categories: classic Western-style oil paintings, and oil paintings that combine Western and Chinese styles. The themes include figures, still objects, and landscapes.

Looking around at the paintings hanging on the walls, my eyes finally stopped on one entitled ‘Waves.’ I love the sea, so this was the one that most appealed to me. The waves tumble with white froth, and seagulls are flying just above the sea. The picture looked so lifelike that I could almost smell the salt water and hear the sounds of the surf. The shop owner told me this work took ten days to finish.

I also liked their paintings depicting grazing horses, and a mountain spotted with snow, reflected in a peaceful lake.

What I appreciated

Lifelike oil paintings

What customers appreciate

Oil paintings combining Western and Chinese styles

If you like oil paintings, I bet you would like to visit a Chinese-style oil painting shop on your trip to Beijing. The shop is called Ju Qi Zhai, and it’s located on Liulichang East Street.

When I entered the shop, the shop owner Mr. Huang received me warmly and gave me a brief self-introduction. He himself is an artist. He was brought up in a small, poor village. Though life was difficult there, he and his friends held out hope for a brighter future. So he set hope as the theme of most of his paintings.

He then brought me to one of his paintings. I was attracted by the Great Wall on it right away. Instead of a grey color, this Great Wall was red. And pretty soon I realized that the Great Wall was made of a team of boys. Above their heads there is a white dove flying in the sky.

The dove represents hope and peace that will fall upon children. The children, wearing red, symbolize a prosperous and powerful country.

Some other paintings show the traditional courtyards of old Beijing. As I was raised in Beijing, these pictures reminded me of my childhood memories. The traditional courtyards are shown exactly as they were: the grey bricks, a wooden gate posted with red couplets, and a pair of stone lions keeping guard at the door.

I have to admit that old Beijing really has a lingering charm.

The artist also focuses on painting Chinese ethnic minority girls. Each of them is wearing the colorful traditional dress of her minority group. Some of the charming girls are playing flutes or other instruments. Gazing at them attentively, I felt like I could hear the melodious sound.

What I appreciated

Oil paintings depicting ordinary life

What customers appreciate

Chinese-style oil paintings

A brush pen, ink, paper, and ink stone are indispensable tools for creating graceful Chinese paintings and calligraphy. These “four treasures of the study” are also a great gift idea for you to show your special taste in Chinese art.

A shop close to Beijing’s CBD area boasts these four treasures from the most famous areas in China.

The various brush pens displayed look so neat. Their tips are made from sheep, goat, or wolf hair. A sheep's wool brush pen is soft and suitable for writing free hand calligraphy, while a fox hair brush can be used in many ways.

The ink stones are from She county. They are some of the most well-known ink stones in China, and feature a delicate surface, perfect for grinding ink. Even in wintertime, ink contained in this ink stone doesn't freeze.

Piled on the shelves, Xuan paper is special for its beautiful, clean white color, and smooth, soft surface. It easily absorbs water, and is suitable for any style of painting and writing.

The shop owner is a talented artist. He is especially good at painting landscapes on Chinese fans.

When you shop there, you can watch him do a painting on the spot!

What I appreciate:

Quality four treasures of the study for collection

What customers appreciate:

Beautiful gifts, reasonable prices

What a great pleasure to watch horses galloping on the prairie! If you don't have the chance to watch real horses, then why not get a horse painting by Mr. Wang Zixian? His paintings vividly depict galloping horses in every detail. They are not only good gifts for your friends, but perfect for decorating your home.

I visited Mr. Wang Zixian's studio a few days ago and was impressed by the tremendous display of paintings.

One painting depicts a thousand horses galloping together on a great prairie. It symbolizes people who work hard for the same goal.

Another painting named "Jump and Fly into the Sky" is characterized by an excited horse jumping high. It is copied from the image of a horse on a very old Chinese antique.

Mr. Wang Zixian told me he started to paint when he was very young. In order to master this art, he went to Inner Mongolia and stayed there for several months. While watching horses running on the prairie, he painted over 1000 horses. With this experience, he established his own style of painting horses.

What I appreciate:
Beautiful horse paintings

What customers appreciate:
Reasonable price

Unique Chinese calligraphy art represents the beauty of painting, dance, and music. Each character is as beautiful and delicate as a flower.

At Mr. Li Feng’s studio, you can watch a calligraphy master create your own personal artwork on the spot.

Mr. Li Feng started to write calligraphy at the age of 7.  After many years of study and practice, he created his own style of calligraphy---- clerical regular script. The calligraphy artwork exhibited in his studio is mainly done in this style.

One artwork with the character “dragon” is quite striking. Mr. Li wrote it with only one stroke. Examining this character, you will find it is square on the outside and round inside.

Another piece of art describing scenery is distinguished by the hardness of the characters. The lines look like they’re carved on stone.

Clerical regular script first appeared in China 2000 years ago. Mr. Li Feng is the only calligraphist who writes in this way today.

What I appreciate:
Unique calligraphy done by a famous artist

What customers appreciate:
Chinese calligraphy created on the spot

A Chinese stone seal engraved with beautiful patterns is usually used by painters to make imprints on their works. Today more and more people collect it as an ornament to beautify their rooms.  If you own a rare Chinese seal made of a special stone, you can make money from it, as its value is rising every year

A few days ago I visited a Chinese stone seal shop in a famous antique street. The shop offered 4 types of stone seals: Shoushan, Qingtian, Changhua, and "Chicken Blood". The names of the first three are derived from the places which produce them.

The shop keeper showed me a Tianhuang stone seal, a kind of Shoushan stone seals, which was yellow and engraved with beautiful flowers. According to her, the deposit of Tianhuang stone was almost depleted, and its value was100 times that of gold. So it would be wise to make an investment in it.

"Chicken Blood" stone seals are the most popular with costumers. Their color is tyrian pink. Their textures are very suitable for seal carving. One features an image of two old man discussing under a tree. You can see clearly every detail of it, like the men's beard. It's about 7 cm long, and 2 cm wide. Because of its increasing rarity, the value of a "Chicken Blood" stone seal is surely to increase in the future.

What I appreciate:
Precious Chinese stone seals with beautiful carving

What costumers appreciate:
Beautiful Chinese stone seals which are good for collection

This inkstone is highly worth collecting, since the source of it is on extinction path.

Even if you know nothing about Chinese calligraphy and painting, you can still impress your friends by placing a beautiful inkstone on your desk.      

A few days ago, I visited an inkstone shop offering its clientele one of the four most well- known inkstones in China. A hospitable shop owner received me. According to him,  this type of inkstone was made famous by a beautiful story.

One day, a man walking along a riverside found two cranes standing still on the river. He used a net to capture them, but only got a stone. Strangely enough, he found a crack on the stone and could hear cranes singing from there. Intrigued, the man cut the stone in half along the crack, and the two pieces became two beautiful inkstones, each engraved with the image of a crane.

This type of inkstones are called Duan, after the name of the city which produces them. People like to engrave pictures on Duan inkstones. Cranes are a particularly popular subject.

Duan inkstone has about 1300 years of history. It's made from a special stone with fine texture. It allows the ink ground in it to flow readily, and prevents it from icing up in winter.  What's more, a craftsman needs 10 years of practice before he can skillfully engrave excellent images on a Duan inkstone. 

Inkstones at this shop come in various sizes. The smallest one is about 4 x 2  inches, the biggest, 8 x 15 inches.

Prices of the smaller inkstones range from RMB 60 to RMB 800.  The biggest one costs RMB 12,000.

What I appreciate: 

quality inkstones with beautiful carvings

beautiful inkstones, negotiable price

Chinese brush painting has 1,300 years of history. A few days ago I visited 93 Painting, a brush painting shop in an antique market. Mr.Zhang, the owner of the shop, kindly received me. He told me that his shop had collected many famous artists' paintings.

A painting named De Tao Tu is a good gift for friends and family. It featured a monkey playing with six peaches. The monkey was depicted so vividly that I could clearly see its hair. In Chinese culture, peaches symbolize longevity.

Another painting depicting five cabbages was also appealing. It was painted by a famous painter from the 1950s. Cabbages represent purity and being a good government official.

93 Painting also features beautiful porcelains and woodcarvings. In one corner of the shop stood a statue of Kwan-yin. It was carved in a  precious Huangyang wood.

What I appreciate:
fine artworks of famous artists

What customers appreciate:
beautiful artworks, reasonable price

North of the BaBaoShan subway station lies an antiques and craftworks market where you can buy paintings and calligraphy works, porcelains, and wooden articles. Shop 1007 offers an unusual sight of root carving works. These decorations will compliment your distinctive aesthetic standard.

Root carving, also called the ‘art of root’, combines the natural beauty of tree root and the creative power of the artist.

Stepping inside this universe of oddly shaped root sculptures, I wondered who could possess such insight as to select these miraculous roots. The shop keeper greeted me and invited me to have a cup of tea, sitting down at a unique wooden table.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Ma has collected a great number of root sculptures. As wanted to share his treasures with more people, he opened this shop in 1996.

He was especially proud of one of his works. It was called ‘Shen Long’, or ‘Devine Dragon’ in English. The dark-colored wooden dragon looked so vivid that the head, the beard, and the curling body could be seen clearly. I could not but marvel at both the natural magic, and the human craftsmanship.

Looking around, I couldn’t help asking how Mr. Ma could collect so many incredible root sculptures. He smiled and noted, “You can find out beauty everywhere as long as you observe carefully.”

Mr. Ma will help you ship the one you selected.

What I appreciated:

Rare root sculptures

What customers appreciate:

Rare root sculptures

If you visit a friend’s home for the first time and see a Chinese painting hanging on the wall, you can conclude that the host must be a learned, tasteful person. The reasons are: First, admiring a Chinese painting is a spiritual enjoyment that can cultivate your taste. Second, buying a famous artist’s work is a wise investment.

Last week I visited a famous ancient cultural street in Beijing, and found an outstanding gallery called ‘Ancient Temple’. The shop keeper Mr. Jia had been painting for more than forty years. Some of his works are kept in the Great Hall of the People, and the Palace Museum.

Mr. Jia is a humble, sincere artist. He told me he was especially good at drawing peaches and pomegranates. Peaches symbolize longevity, so Chinese people often send peaches to elders as birthday presents. Pomegranates represent big and happy families full of children, because, when ripe, they will grow a great many seeds inside. Gazing at his prominent works of peaches and pomegranates, I gasped in admiration.

Mr. Jia also loves drawing landscapes and plum blossoms. Looking at a painting featuring mountains, streams, and a pavilion, I felt like entering a wonderland. Another one showed red plum flowers against a white snow background. Chinese people especially love plum flowers which are so proud that they choose to blossom in the coldest moment.

In the shop, if you are lucky enough, you might catch sight of Mr. Jia painting on the spot. Surely you will be impressed by his profound and proficient painting skills.

What I appreciated:

Senior artist, outstanding Chinese paintings

What costumers appreciate:

Intriguing Chinese paintings