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Lu Yuan Antiques, Arts, and Flowers

This indoor market features a wide selection of flowers, plants, trees, antiques, and arts and crafts. Lu Yuan is the ideal place to shop for flowers, plants, and other gifts to decorate your home. There is also an excellent variety of traditional Chinese arts, such as calligraphy, jade carving...
This indoor market features a wide selection of flowers, plants, trees, antiques, and arts and crafts. Lu Yuan is the ideal place to shop for flowers, plants, and other gifts to decorate your home. There is also an excellent variety of traditional Chinese arts, such as calligraphy, jade carvings, chopsticks, paintings, stone chops, wood carvings, pottery, etc. 
 
Location: Lu Yuan Market is at the intersection of San Jing Jie (三经街) and Wen Yi Lu (文艺路) near Lu Mei Academy of Art, and Port on the Water Seafood Restaurant (水上渔港shuǐ shàng yú gǎng). Tell a taxi driver to go to “shuǐ shàng yú gǎng”, and the market will be on the north side of the restaurant. 
 

Taiyuan Street (general shopping)

Taiyuan Street is one of Shenyang’s main commercial centers. During the day you have to swim through enormous crowds of people (although i suppose that won’t come as a surprise). Taiyuan Street itself is “pedestrian only” in its central section. Taiyuan St...
Taiyuan Street is one of Shenyang’s main commercial centers. During the day you have to swim through enormous crowds of people (although i suppose that won’t come as a surprise). Taiyuan Street itself is “pedestrian only” in its central section. Taiyuan Street, as well as the other streets in the area, are lined with both small shops and gigantic shopping malls. Here you can find just about every kind of product imaginable…cell phones, clothing, shoes, artwork, etc. 
 
Recommended: Go to Pizza Hut or Europaer if you’re starving for authentic Western food after a long day of pushing through crowds and haggling prices.
 
How to get there: Taiyuan Street runs north-south between bei liu ma lu (北六马路) and nan wu ma lu (南五马路).  Its a few blocks east of the south train station.  The following bus routes will take you to the area: 203, 501, 207, 263, 4240, 220, 103, 240, 237, 129,
 
 
 
Photos by Jerry Wang, 2007

Bei Fang Bookstores

Shenyang doesn’t have any particularly good foreign language bookstores. The largest and most well-known bookstore is called Bei Fang Bookstore (北方图书城 běifāng túshū chéng). This large, four-level store has a wide variety of books, maps, pictures, and study too...
Shenyang doesn’t have any particularly good foreign language bookstores. The largest and most well-known bookstore is called Bei Fang Bookstore (北方图书城 běifāng túshū chéng). This large, four-level store has a wide variety of books, maps, pictures, and study tools such as electronic dictionaries. Most of the foreign language section is geared towards Chinese learners of English. As a result Bei Fang does not offer a great selection of reading material, but is an excellent place to look for teaching materials and resources for learning Chinese. 
 
  
There is a smaller store located at the corner of Wenhua Lu (文化路) and San Hao Street (三好街) at the northern end of San Hao Computer Market. It is next door to Fantasia Theater, sharing a building with Happy Party KTV (快乐迪). 
  
The third store is located in Huanggu District near Lioning University — #128 Chang Jiang Jie (长江街).　
 
"The Pink Bookstore"　
 
 

Sporting Goods

Sports apparel can be found all over Shenyang, and certainly on Taiyuan Street and Middle Street. However, for those shopping specifically for sporting goods, the best bet is to...
Sports apparel can be found all over Shenyang, and certainly on Taiyuan Street and Middle Street. However, for those shopping specifically for sporting goods, the best bet is to go to the Shenyang Gymnasium (体育场 tǐyù chǎng), also known as Sports Park (体育公园  tǐyù gōngyuán). This area features a large outdoor playground and basketball courts complimented by an underground sporting goods market. The surrounding streets are also lined with sporting goods stores. General sports apparel, balls, rackets, rollerblades, ice skates, shoes, and much more is available here. 
 
Location: Sports Park is in Heping District (和平区) on the south side of Zhongshan Park, a couple blocks northwest of Heping Square. It is between Min Zhu Lu (民主路) and Nan San Ma Lu (男三马路). Tell the driver “tǐyù chǎng” or “zhōng shān gōng yuán” if headed by taxi. 
 
Useful Bus Routes:
231 from Beiling Park, North Market
257 from Tiexi Carrefour, Taiyuan Street, Fangxing Square, Imperial Palace
282 from Xi Ta, Fangxing Square, Nanhu Park, San Hao Street, Exhibition Center, South Tower
296 from Ma Lu Wan, Wu Ai Market, Middle Street
502 from North Train Station, Xi Ta, Taiyuan Street, South Train Station, San Hao Street, Nanhu Park, Summer Palace
 
 
 
Photos by Jerry Wang, 2007
 

METRO (wholesale and imported foods)

Metro is THE place to go for imported food products. They have just about every kind of foreign food you could want: cheese, wine, liquor (big selection), maple syrup, cereal, good chocolate. Basically all the difficult-to-find items can be found here in one convenient stop. Howe...
Metro is THE place to go for imported food products. They have just about every kind of foreign food you could want: cheese, wine, liquor (big selection), maple syrup, cereal, good chocolate. Basically all the difficult-to-find items can be found here in one convenient stop. However, because METRO is a wholesaler, you must have a membership card in order to shop there. There is no fee to join, but apparently new members are supposed to be affiliated with a company. The exact rules are a bit unclear, but most foreigners seem to be able get a membership with just a business card from their place of employment. Language teachers should try to bring a business card with the name of your school. It's probably not worth the bother for those on a short stay in Shenyang. However, the membership is quite worthwhile for those living in Shenyang, as a better selection and value of foreign goods cannot be found anywhere else in Shenyang. 
  

METRO is in Tiexi District (铁西区tiě xī qū). Ask a taxi driver for "mài dé long shì chǎng."

Zhuo Zhan Shopping Center (name brands)

This 5-level shopping mall was newly opened in 2006 and caters to shoppers looking for top-level brand names, including Gucci, etc. The mall’s departments include leather, wool, formal wear, jewelry/watches, lingerie, cosmetics, and miscellaneous clothing. This mall is for serio...
This 5-level shopping mall was newly opened in 2006 and caters to shoppers looking for top-level brand names, including Gucci, etc. The mall’s departments include leather, wool, formal wear, jewelry/watches, lingerie, cosmetics, and miscellaneous clothing. This mall is for serious shoppers…don’t come looking for bargains. 
       
Location:  The mall is on the north side of Government Square (市府广场 shì fǔ guǎng chǎng).  The main entrance faces south (click “Government Square” link for bus routes)
 

South Tower Shoe City

You can probably guess what they sell here. The large area consists of many stores and vendors with shoes of all styles. This place is mostly bargain-priced shoes, but higher quality shoes can be found as well. 
 
Location: Near the S...
You can probably guess what they sell here. The large area consists of many stores and vendors with shoes of all styles. This place is mostly bargain-priced shoes, but higher quality shoes can be found as well. 
 

San Hao Street Computer and Software City

Computer city, often called “diànnǎo chéng” (电脑城), or sometimes just“sān hǎo jiē” (三好街), is supposedly one of the largest computer and electronic markets in northeastern China. Though the shops here specialize in computers and software, ba...
Computer city, often called “diànnǎo chéng” (电脑城), or sometimes just“sān hǎo jiē” (三好街), is supposedly one of the largest computer and electronic markets in northeastern China. Though the shops here specialize in computers and software, basically any electronic item is sold here.
 
In the past, this was the place to go for cheap (and illegal) DVDs and computer software.  However recently, the police have been cracking down somewhat on the pirated movie trade (both in Shenyang and throughout China), but this just means that the trade is out of sight.  By strolling about the area for a few minutes, you’re bound to be approached by people saying “DVD, DVD, DVD!”  Go with them to begin browsing through their stash of incredibly cheap DVDs and software.
     
During the day the street is always packed with people.  If you get the craving for a Western snack, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Europaer, KFC, and a newly opened Subway Sandwich store are all located on san hao jie. 
      
Note: San hao street is NOT a good place to shop for cellular phones!  Also, all shops close daily at 5:30pm, so don’t plan on shopping late.
   
 How to Get There: Computer City is south of the inner ring road.  It’s a few blocks west of the Wenhua Lu Interchange and just east of Northeastern University (东北大学, dōng běi dà xué).  The following buses will take you there: 135,239,117,282,272,502,225,244,环。  Otherwise, all taxi drivers will know "sān hǎo jiē." 

Wu Ai Market (bargain apparel)

The newly remodeled Wu Ai (“Five Loves”) Market is well known in Shenyang and surrounding cities for its massive selection of bargain goods. The primary products here are clothes, shoes, and apparel, but you can also find other miscellaneous items such as Christmas and other ho...
The newly remodeled Wu Ai (“Five Loves”) Market is well known in Shenyang and surrounding cities for its massive selection of bargain goods. The primary products here are clothes, shoes, and apparel, but you can also find other miscellaneous items such as Christmas and other holiday decorations, furniture and home furnishings, small electronics, souvenirs, books, and media.
 
If you can speak a little bit of Chinese, the Wu Ai Market is a great place to practice your bargaining skills, and with a little patience you can  definitely makes some very cheap purchases. Keep in mind that “you get what you pay for,” as the quality of the goods here usually reflects the price. 
 
How to get there: The market is near the center of the city about 2 km south of Middle Street. All taxi drivers will know it, otherwise take one of the following buses: 326, 800, 134, 334, 133, 260, 227, 212, 222, 224, 333, 270, 125, 223, 266, 227, 503, 297, 273, 132, 274, 117, 246
 
Note: The market opens early in the morning and closes down at 3:00pm, so plan on shopping early.     
 
 
  
Photos by Jerry Wang, 2007