Shopping for Antiques and Souvenirs in Beijing

Panjiayuan Antique Market Offers Huge Selection of Crafts and Arts

Oct 17, 2009

Synonymous with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, this market is famous for antiques, pottery, porcelain, paintings, clocks, beads, jade, coins, fans and much more.

Panjiayuan – sometimes called the Dirt Market –brims with everything from A to Z and is a popular stop for tourists buying presents and souvenirs. Just some of the items sold are brass-ware, books, records, PLA caps and bags, lanterns, jewellery, Buddhas (real as well as fake), Mao alarm clocks, old city maps, cigarette cards, ethnic clothing and embroidery, rugs, Cultural Revolution posters, painted treasure boxes, vases and traditional leather puppets.

Panjiayuan Antique Market Facts

This unplanned market started taking shape in 1992 and began as a roadside market. As folk antiques and handiwork popularity and trade grew, it has now become a large antique and handiwork market known as the Panjiayuan Antique Market famous for its real and fake antiques. It also has the reputation of being the most inexpensive antiques market in Beijing and has become a popular tourist destination.

The market was elected as one of the top ten antique markets in China in 2004 at the prize-awarding ceremony of the first Annual Top Ten Lists of Collection in China. The bazaar is located south west of Beijing near the Panjiayuan Bridge in the Chaoyang District and covers an area of 48,500 square meters, of which 26,000 square meters are for business.

There are over 4,000 shops with nearly 10,000 dealers, 70 percent of whom come from all parts of China. With so many stalls selling similar items, it is a great place for bargain hunters. Although there are genuine articles found in the market, it is hard to tell the real deal from the fake.

Panjiayuan Antique Market Layout

The market is divided into six main areas. The Western part of the market is an open-air area where large stone sculptures are sold out of trucks and next to this sculptures section is a two-story building that houses modern and traditional furniture.

The huge middle section is a partly covered area that forms the main part of the market and is only open during weekends. The southernmost part is a narrow lane where secondhand books and ancient scrolls are sold and cheaper, less authentic versions of the same items can be found in some of the other stalls.

In the eastern part of the market in a big yard a selection of other ancient arts and artifacts can be found. Highest-class antiques and more exquisite and expensive handicrafts are sold in small indoor stores which surround the market in north and east.

Four Main Zones of the Panjiayuan Antique Market

Stalls in its semi-covered area of the middle area have been divided into four zones according to their items for sale. The southeastern portion is called Zone One by Panjiayuan's veteran patrons. A wide range of Chinese paintings, calligraphic works as well as beads and jade is sold here. Although the paintings and calligraphic works are usually handmade, they are mass-produced and should not be very expensive.

Zone Two, or the northeastern section, sells beads, bronze vessels, ceramic vases and small wooden furniture. This is also where items from the "Cultural Revolution" can be found.

Chinese ethnic minority arts and crafts, trinkets, antiques and apparels are found in the southwestern area, or Zone Three. Many of these traders are from Tibet. It has been said that a more complete collection of Tibetan cultural relics are found in Panjiayuan than in a Tibetan village.

Chinese ceramics take up most of the space in Zone Four, the northwestern section. But be cautious as most of them aren't antiques.

Tips for Telling the Real Antique from the Fake

The easiest way to tell if a piece of furniture is an authentic antique is to lift it, according to an antique furniture dealer in Beijing. An authentic old piece, generally made of hard wood, should be much heavier than a new one. Another way is to knock on the panels and listen to the sounds produced. The wood of a fake piece is generally thinner and has a clearer and harsher sound. Also, authentic tables and wardrobe doors have a finer texture than most replicas.

Panjiayuan Antique Market is open from 8:30 - 18:30 from Monday to Friday and 4:30 - 18:30 Saturday and Sunday. It is recommended to get there at the crack of dawn on Saturday or Sunday if it’s antiques on the shopping list to pick up the best deals from the men and women whose trinkets, pottery, statues and even ancient weapons have been collected from all over the country.

The copyright of the article Shopping for Antiques and Souvenirs in Beijing in S Asia/China Travel is owned by Yahan Wu. Permission to republish Shopping for Antiques and Souvenirs in Beijing in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.