Up Market Shops
Louhu has always been a major shopping district for people from Hong Kong. A lot of up market shops are concentrated there, many of them under the management of Hong Kongers or their descendents. The four-storey tall Friendship City Department Store (Youyi Cheng Baihuo), very close to the Luohu customs gate from which one passes into Hong Kong, is one of the district’s focal points. If you’re good at digging for bargains, you will discover that not only are the European and Japanese big brands sold there of high quality, but they’re available at costs that will raise your eyebrows and bring a smile to your face. Some shops are especially famous and are often visited by artists. Quanyi Boutiques, for example, is a place where models like to go; fashion magazines have a special fondness for this place too, and fashion editors go in and out of its specialty shops to borrow clothing to use in their photographs.

Another main destination is Haiyan Commercial Plaza, on Remin Road. The shops here mostly deal in discount items, but with some retail items as well. Because they have been in business for a while, they all have their steady customers. What is special about these shops is their fresh style; some goods are distinctly feminine, others simple and functional, while still others are cutting edge and full of character. Each shop presents meticulously made products, whether they specialize in brand name goods, make Japanese clothes, sell Korean jeans, or display famous cosmetics. Of course, before you can find fantastic buys, you have to have some understanding of the brands you’re looking for. In addition to good research and knowledge, you also have to have sharp eyes that enable you to eliminate fakes and choose only the real McCoy.

Shenzhen’s Dongmen Commercial Pedestrian Street

Down Market Shops
Shenzhen’s Dongmen Commercial Pedestrian Street is always overflowing with people, whatever the time of day. Aside from having the city’s most competitive general department stores – Maoye Department Store and Tianhong Commercial Plaza – it seems to be at the cutting edge of Shenzhen fashion, a melting pot where all different styles of goods come together. Just about whatever you can imagine is here and the speed at which shops move with the tide of fashion is simply astonishing.

This reporter was deeply impressed by one particular shop specializing in Japanese school girl uniforms; it even sold the collected works of Japanese photographers whose works showed the “innocent sexiness” of Japanese school girls. The small but colorful cute hair style shops, crystal hot paste (sticker) shops, DIY accessories shops, personalized business cards shops, and the like, lend this district its character in the same way that pupils enliven a human face. Most shops of this sort are concentrated in places like Xihua Gong, Mongkok Shopping Center, Baima Boutique City and Donggang Center. The Japanese Street on the top floor of Taiyang Department Store is also worth window shopping. Prices are low, with leather bracelets to be had for just 10 yuan, while many of the goods available at the “accessories heaven” that covers the entire floor are worth buying – as well as being in the latest styles.

Of course, when the weather gets hot, unless your desire for material things is really overpowering, small shops with their goods displayed in just a few square meters, will seem cramped and hot. However, the shear abundance and inexpensiveness of goods here could naturally cause you to forget yourself and as well as the crowds and the heat.

Read the original in Chinese here.

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