Liulichang Antiques Street
Liulichang is a small street lined with shops facades bearing Ming and Qing dynasty architectural features. With brightly painted doors and eaves and gracefully curved black-tiled-roofs buildings, a little of old Beijing’s lifestyle is retained here.
Scholars who once came to the capital to sit for the imperial examination started this ancient market. Sometimes, they ran out of money and sold antiques, paintings and calligraphy to cover their journeys home. The cultural market gradually emerged here at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1644-1911).
The China Bookstore, Rongbaozhai, and Jiguge are the most famous antique stores in Liulichang. The China Bookstore located at the back of a courtyard of the first complex on the north, sells second-hand foreign language books. A used bookstore in China, particularly one that has foreign-language offerings, was once a rare thing, but this one also has a curious organizational style. All the foreign-language materials are mixed together. English-language works stand spine-to-spine with Russian and German works. Literature shares shelf space with psychology and history.
Along the street, peddlers hawk snacks, groceries, toys and copper coins, all kind of small commodities. Merchants race to their doors with a welcoming Hello for all their customers, but they all rack their brains to attract foreigners’ attention. Some offer free seal-carving services and they even can find a perfect Chinese name for you if you like. Some shop owners invite folk artists to their shops such as an 80-year-old heir to the Qing Dynasty’s royal embroidery tradition. It is amazing to watch this elderly man embroider a pair of little shoes for a pair of tiny feet.
