I am going on a trip to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guilin in October.

I am a fanatic quilter and was wondering if there are any bargains in fabric to be found for quilting?

What should I be looking for?

Any great fabric shops in any of those cities listed that you could recommend?

Thank you!

You can find some pretty good bargains at the local fabric markets or department stores in each city, though the quality may not be what you expect. For best quality, I like the Silk King stores in Shanghai:
http://www.silkking.com.cn/doce/gsjj.htm
http://www.frommers.com/destinations...ai/S28906.html
They carry silk, of course, but also cotton, woolens, linens, poly and other materials as well as trims, buttons and zippers.
Most of the shops in China will assume you are looking for silk, so be sure to explain if you are looking for another type of material.

In Hong Kong, for fabrics, IMO the best places to go are (i) Western Market and (ii) Chinese Arts and Crafts. Western Market is just west of Central on Hong Kong Island and has about a dozen fabric stalls, see one I have used, below. For Chinese Arts and Crafts, there are various locations around town, the one near the Star Ferry pier on the Kowloon side has a pretty large selection of silk and some cotton fabric. Go to
http://www.chineseartsandcrafts.com.hk.

Another place which probably carries fabric is Yee Hwa Chinese Products Emporium, they are like a down-scale version of Chinese Arts and Crafts. They have various locations in town, their biggest shop is in Kowloon right on Nathan Road and would probably be the place to go to try to find fabric, go to http://www.yuehwa.com/yh/english/hkallstore/p2_2k4.html for locations.

A textile shop in Western Market to try is:

Yau Fat Textile Company
Shop 105&106 Western Market
323 Des Veoux Road Central
Tel: 2850-5169

They are open every day I believe, but call ahead for Sundays to make sure. This stall is about the first stall on the right as you come up the escalator. The woman in the shop I have generally dealt with is Rowena, but there are other people there too. I don't know that this shop is any better than others in the Market, but they do seem to have a very wide selection of fabrics.

For ribbons, buttons and other notions, you don’t find them in Western Market generally, try the little stalls on Pottinger Street in Central on Hong Kong Island between Queens Road and Lyndhurst Terrace, or the shop below:

Needlework Shop
Shop G17-18 Midland Plaza
328 Queens Road, Central
Tel: 2123-1327

You probably already know your prices at home. You can bargain in Western Market, in Chinese Arts and Crafts and Yee Hwa the prices will be fixed. I would be curious to know how the Hong Kong prices compare. I don't know how much cotton you will find, you may find a lot of silk and then a lot of polyester. You will also find a good bit of wool and wool blends (for suits). People here don't seem to like cotton too much, my guess is that the washing machines are too hard on it and no one wants to iron it, although the climate certainal calls out for natural fibers...

SallyJ; I was not overwhelmed with the fabrics I saw in the shops of Beiijing and Shanghai. The best material I saw in those cities was at the Beijing weekend market where there re some dealers selling "ethnic/minority" fabrics..hand dyed cottons, etc.

If you want new silk or cotton, you can try Ruifuxiang in Beijing; any hotel person will know where it is.

Thank you guys for all your great information!