Shopping in Xian?
 

What's the best buy and/or most interesting thing(s) to buy in Xian and where do you find it or them? Thanks in advance, for your replies!!!

Ba Xian An outdoor antiques market on Wednesdays and Sunday mornings; Zhong Bei Jiuhuo Shichang also an antiques market (in both cases be surprised if you actually stumble across something which isn't fake, but the amount of antiquities which simply turn up in peasants' fields in this area is astounding so you might be lucky. But in both cases there's a substantial range of choice and prices are lower then in Beijing). To the west of Bell Tower Square there's a second-hand camera shop selling Nikons, Hasselblads, and beautiful ancient box cameras (Seagull brand, etc.); Guwenhua Jie near the Forest of Stelae, has huge paint brushes, rubbings, paintings, and musical instruments; Huajue Xiang leading to the Great Mosque, has traditional souvenirs of all kinds but vendors know a mug when they see one. It's fun to browse, though.

Or you can do the dumb tourist thing and spend several dozen times what you should on on a life-size fake terracotta warrior. Credit cards cheerfully accepted.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

My favorite thing in Xian is the "farmers' paintings." Most of what you see are copies of a few dozen famous ones but they are each painted individually and if you bargain hard you can get some for a good price.

I'm interested in the paintings- I'll be there in September. Please - what's a "good price." $2.00 - $20.00??

Y25. About $3. Accept no nonsense about originality--they are all mass produced (but attractive all the same). If you want to see painters at work, and have a chance to buy real originals or see an exhibition dedicated to how all this came about, you'll need to take a bus of taxi out to Hu Xian (about 1hr.), and visit the villages of Xi Han Cun and Dong Han Cun.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

I also found the prices in Xian to be lower for the same types of things you can find in Beijing and Shanghai. The small little market near the entrance to the terracotta warriors (just to the right of the actual entrance where you hand over your ticket) has more interesting stuff the farther back you go. Seems to have just the typical stuff in the booths at the front, but as you go farther back, the items get more unique and older-looking, for whatever that's worth!