Shopping in Guangxi
Guangxi has a vast territory, and is abundant with natural resources. Guangxi people are diligent and intelligent, and have made lots of exquisite crafts. When you are in Guangxi, shopping is an inevitable thing. With a shopping guide of Guangxi, you may have a joyful shopping experience and buy what you need.
For local special products, you may buy some in franchised stores which are opened in every city. Some stores are near hotels, some are in shopping center, some are in train station and airport. As a foodie, you would be very happy and satisfied, in that there are too many delicious and special food. A piece of advice is given to a foodie: try local food and drinks, and you may have a big win. If you are particular about food, you won’t be worried, cause there are lots of food of different flavors, south and north, home and abroad, and you can find what you like to eat. For those tasty food, you go to food streets, shopping centers. For clothing, you may go to shopping centers, or shopping malls which sell clothing and accessory of various brand, home and abroad.
Shoppeng Center
Here are some highly-recommended shopping centers. Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, is a prosperous city full of various resource, and you can buy fancy and special things in this city. It has lots of shopping centers, like the Mixc Shopping Mall, Wanda Plaza, Shengtiandi shopping mall, and Nanning department store. Guilin, the third biggest city in Guangxi, also has many shopping centers which can meet your shopping need, like Weixiaotang(Niko niko do), Zhengyang pedestrian street, and Wankelong shopping plaza. Every shopping mall or shopping center has every thing you may need, from food, drinks, snacks, clothing, accessory, shoe, bag, theater and game center.
Recommended Products
In Guangxi, every city has its own special products. In the north of Guangxi, Guilin has three famous special products, sanhua jiu, chili sauce, and fermented tofu. In the south of Guangxi, Nanning has the Zhuang brocade and xiuqiu. The Zhuang brocade is colorful and exquisite, and it is one of the four famous brocade in China. Xiuqiu is a ball made of strips of silk. The two things are specialty of the Zhuang people. Beihai, a coastal city, is rich in fishery resources and marine products. It has a special product, pearl.
The Zhuang brocade is a traditional handcraft. People use cotton and linen thread to weave brocade, and use weave skills to make tight structure and design beautiful motifs. Common-used motifs are water, cloud, dragons playing a ball, flower, plant and so on, and in recent years, the brocade is wove with Chinese words, like Guilin Scenery. The brocade is used to make clothing, bag, towel and so on. The Zhuang brocade has a long history of several hundred years. It is found that brocade technique had occurred in Guangxi in the Han Dynasty, and the Zhuang brocade is originated in the Song Dynasty. In several hundred years’ development, the brocade technique has been improved, which makes beautiful brocade and improve the quality of brocade, and the brocade is wove with the Zhuang style. The colorful Zhuang brocade of supreme quality enjoys good reputation, and it is listed as one of the four famous brocade in China.
Xiuqiu is the love token of the Zhuang young people, and a mascot to people. It is a distinctive handcrafts, and fuses people’s beliefs and wish for wonderful love and prosperous life, which is an integral part of Guangxi culture. Xiuqiu is a ball made by craft. It consists of several fragments, usually twelve fragments which are wove with flower, plant and animal motifs, like orchid and chrysanthemum. And those fragments are linked together by weaving with colorful thread. It mostly uses fabric material of three colors- red, yellow and green as the cover. According to records, the inside of Xiuqiu has seeds of crops, like cotton and bean, which is used to increase the weight of Xiuqiu and show people’s wish for a heavy agriculture harvest. The seeds also symbolize fertility, as Xiuqiu is a love token.
Southern pearl is called Nanzhu in Chinese, and it is honored as queen of pearl in sea. A scholar in Ming Dynasty writes in a book: pearl of Hepu is Southern peal, and it is much better than Western peal and Eastern pearl.
Southern pearl is generated by pinctada martensii, and it is big, round and glamorous, known as a national treasure. Hepu is the main production place of Southern pearl, and is officially identified as the origin place of Southern pearl. It has a long history of gathering pearls. According to historical records, in the Qin Dynasty, Southern pearl is brought the Emperor. In every dynasty, the Emperor orders officers to go to Hepu and collect pearls. Ming Dynasty is a great period of gathering pearl, and the biggest gathering of natural pearl amounts to 800 kilogram.
Sanhua jiu is a kind of liquor made from rice in Guilin, and this liquor is of Chinese style. It is one of the best baijiu with rice fragrance and is praised as the king of baijiu. Sanhua jiu has a long history of hundreds of years, which was called Ruilu, and was popular among drinkers.
