Wenli Jewelry is a Taiwanese brand which specializes in coral jewelry. The main materials used by th brand are Salmon Coral, jade and seashells.

The jewelries on display at the shop include earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and pendants. Their most popular products are necklaces, because they combine the beauty of Salmon Coral jewelry and “knot art” (the art of making knots such as “reef knot” or “love knot”). I noticed a very attractive necklace (reef knot with jade and pink coral), and a pendant composed of a true lover’s knot and Salmon Coral.

Another reason for the popularity of their necklaces lies in their artists’ sculpting skills, vividly demonstrated for instance in a flower-shaped seashell with a strand of Salmon Coral chips Customers could not take their eyes away from the glass counter in which this jewel was displayed.

Prices hover from RMB 1000 to RMB 5000. Considering the quality of the work, this is a no-brainer.

What I appreciated:

Salmon Coral and remarkable sculpting skills

Customers appreciate:

Combination of Chinese knot art and coral

Tittot is a famous brand for liuli (colorful pieces of glass) ornaments. Their products convey the Chinese way of thinking and living.

The Tittot collections change with every season. For Spring 2007, they created a line named Early Spring. Very popular with customers, the new collection combines flowers, fishes, beasts, and trees in vivid colors. It breathes the oriental lifestyle: walk in the footsteps of nature.

Tittot make liuli items in various colors, with various degrees of transparency. Their products are known as the “oriental crystal”.

According to gallery assistants, the pig theme is very trendy these days (2007 is the Year of the Pig in China). In this line, the artists created 8 pigs in different stances and expressions: sedateness, delight, freeness, satisfaction, independence, cordiality, happiness, and confidence. You can pick these pigs in different colors (RMB 800-900).

Prices for the ornaments range from RMB 800 to RMB 20,000.

What I appreciated:

The original design of the ornaments

Customers appreciate:

Ornaments of vivid colors, the pig theme

Teemix is a Chinese brand which creates shoes and bags for boys and girls in their teens. Their style is casual. Basic models include loafers, sneakers, and slip-ons.

Cow hide and sheepskin are the main raw material used in their products. Girls’ shoes offer decorative patterns like the American flag and Chinese totems. Some bear metal accessories set with shiny synthetic crystals. According to a high-school girl I talked to in the shop, Teemix shoes look good with jeans. Boys’ shoes are simpler. Made in cow hide, they do not bear any decorative patterns.

Teemix also offer bags made of cloth and neoprene, backpacks, tote bags, and duffel bags.

Prices for girls’ shoes range from RMB 300 to RMB 500; boys’ shoes RMB 400-600, bags RMB 200-400.

What I appreciated:

Bags of a good quality

Customers appreciate:

Shoes which look great with jeans

She Century is a Chinese brand which creates tourmaline jewelry. Tourmaline is a hard, variously colored crystalline mineral. In China it is said to dispel fear, negativity, and grief. According to folk lore, tourmaline crystals protect their wearer against dangers and misfortune.

She Century produces bracelets, necklaces, and earrings in many vivid colors (transparent, ink dark, red, blue, green, yellow, black, and brown).

The most popular items at She Century are bracelets. Girls buy purple tourmaline in the hope to attract Mr. Right. Polished tourmaline pendants are also very much in demand. A polished pink or green tourmaline set encased in sterling silver is bound to sparkle up any look.

Prices for earrings range from RMB 188 to RMB 388; bracelets, RMB 288-888; necklaces, RMB 588-5000; pendants, RMB 300-600.

The shop assistants are helpful and smiling.

What I appreciated:

The sparkling pendants

Customers appreciate:

Tourmaline bracelets which they hope will bring them good luck

Latin Market is a good brand for umbrellas and scarves. It has a presence in many large shopping malls in Beijing.

Their specialties are tiny umbrellas and beautifully embroidered ones. Their models are double folding, triple folding, and quintuple folding. The double-folded umbrellas are decorated with hand-made embroideries and are made in cotton. All of them insure UV protection. Their prices range from RMB 198 to RMB 900.

The shop also offers silk and woolen scarves. In summer, they sell silk scarves including semi-transparent ones and silky smooth ones. The former is worn closes to skin, and is printed with patterns. The latter offers printed patterns on the satin (shiny) side.

Their silk scarves are made in Hangzhou, the ‘capital of silk’ in China. Silk products manufactured in Hangzhou are said to be of a better quality than those produced in other cities Prices range from RMB 300 to RMB 400. The woolen scarves come out on the shelves in fall and winter. The main patterns are checkers alternating warm colors. Prices range from RMB 500 to RMB 900.

What I appreciated:

Umbrellas with hand-made embroideries

Customers appreciate:

Tiny portable umbrellas, smooth silk scarves

Laofengxiang started its jewelry business in the Qing dynasty, 150 years ago. The brand name is famous for the high quality of its gold jewelry, especially its 24k gold jewelry.

In the glass counters of the shop, you will find necklaces, bracelets, rings, and slides in various designs. Their bracelet and slide models are very Chinese in inspiration. Many bracelets are designed after dragons and the phoenix bird. Some are sculpted in the shape of a plum blossom.

The jeweler also offers bracelets for new born babies: this model is christened Changming Zhuo, the “bracelet which can bless baby with a long life”. Their slides are designed in the shapes of Buddha, lotus flowers, and pigs (the pig is an auspicious animal in the twelve-year Chinese astrology cycle).

Changming Zhuo and slides of Buddha will make good gifts for your friends and family. According to Chinese folk lore, they can bless and protect people who wear them. The price for gold is RMB 214 per gram (it may fluctuate, but not much).

The shop assistant was very patient and helpful.

What I appreciated:

High quality gold jewelry

Customers appreciate:

High quality gold jewelryand design of Chinese inspiration

Hengruifu is a Beijing local brand which sells cloth shoes in the traditional Chinese style and in the Mongolian ethnic style. Some of their production is hand-made.

The most noteworthy items at Hengruifu are their Mongolian–style shoes. Very popular with customers, these have a golden cloth upper and a rubber sole. Their shape is pointed, and they are decorated with transparent glass breads (RMB 98).

Other cloth shoes bear embroidered patterns such as plum blossoms, peonies and lotus, and certain models are decorated with beads.

Prices for Hengruifu’s shoes range from RMB 48 to RMB 108. An inexpensive gift idea, and a very original one since Mongolian-style shoes are quite hard to find in the US and in Europe.

What I appreciated:

Inexpensive shoes

Customers appreciate:

Shoes in the Mongolian style

Tongrentang started its Chinese traditional herbs business in 1669 AD. The brand is very famous for its high quality herbs. The herb shop in the Shuang’an shopping mall mainly sells herbs said to be beneficial for health and beauty.

Tongrentang extract the essence of plants like ginseng and “lycium chinense”, and make pills purported to help with tiredness and drowsiness during day time.

In the shop, various kinds of tonics are on display: for children, young lady, young men, and senior citizens. Tongrentang also offers genuine ginseng root, and swiflet nests. These are built by cave-dwelling swifts which cling their nest to cave ceilings as high as 70 meters. These nests are mostly composed of seaweed mixed by the bird’s saliva, and harvesters find them on steep cliffs along the Southern Chinese coast and in South-East Asia. Bird’s nest soup is said to be very beneficial to women’s beauty.

Prices for a bottle of 50 pills hover around RMB 200. Ginseng root’s prices range from RMB 880 to RMB 1380, according to weight and age. Bird’s nests cost between RMB 2000 an RMB 4000.