Rose Miao
2011
Liulichang Street: a paradise of arts and crafts
Beijing really is a shopper’s paradise, with tens of thousands of old and new stores serving both residents and tourists. But one street in particular is right next to some of Beijing’s most famous hotels, and it keeps the style of the old.
Imagine such a place where you will be offered the sense of age, where you can get lost in a sea of antiques and traditional Chinese handicrafts. Liulichang Street, with a history going all the way back to the 16th century, is Beijing’s storehouse for handicrafts.
For hundreds of years, the street remained one of Beijing’s busiest shopping venues. Today people walk through Liulichang to shop for paintings, antiques, fans, jade, embroideries, tea sets, and all kinds of Chinese ethnic items.
If you are looking for some unique Chinese gifts for families and friends back home, this is the place for you!
Here are some of the shops:
Pin Hu Tang – A Good Cup of Tea Made Easy
This quaint shop at the west end of Liulichang Street is where big-time tea lovers go for authentic Yixing purple clay teapots. It’s not far from the Haige International Hotel
Yixing teapots are said to be able to improve your tea by allowing tea aromas to build up right in the walls of the pot. The secret lies in the special material they use for the pots: Yixing purple clay, which is porous and absorbent.
The clay is unique to Yixing, from where their collection of teapots are crafted. The owner himself is an accomplished Yixing teapot maker.
The designs of their teapots are pretty unique. There are shapes mimicking pumpkins, gourds, stumps, and castles, just to name a few. And you will find skillful engravings on these teapots: a scene showing harmony between man and nature, a quotation from an ancient love poem, or an auspicious animal mounting the lid to entertain your eyes…
These really are things you won’t find in your back home! That might be why so many tourists would like to spend their travel dollars here.
Gu Miao Hua Yuan –- Pristine Beauty of Flowers Live On Your Walls
This interesting little shop is tucked away in a 600-year-old building and offers exceptional Chinese flower paintings that have found their way into the homes of many Beijingers. It is just a short ride away from the Hwa Apartment Hotel.
In the shop, you’ll find paintings of plums, orchids, chrysanthemum, as well as bamboo; they all are the work of our master – Mr. Xie.
Mr. Xie is the owner of the shop. He paints a range of flowers, but what he is best at is peony, the flower he loves the most. He’s spent more than a decade observing the flower so as to create works that are true to nature.
That is an achievement few can accomplish, indeed!
Frame works, and scroll works which is easier to carry, are both available in the shop.
Qing Ci Lan Ting – A Lovely Touch To Your Home
This interesting little shop with an old-fashioned façade carries a large collection of celadon products made in Longquan, a southern Chinese town knows as the hometown of celadon.
There you will be fond of a selection of products with designs found nowhere outside of China. A bowl, for instance, is engraved with a pair of fish that can only be found in a river in Longquan. Another teapot looks like a big river snail. It looks so real that you wouldn’t recognize it as a teapot at first glance!
Actually, everyone will find something fitting in their own home: a hat-shaped vase for holding flowers, a pumpkin-style jar for storing CDs, and a lotus leaf platter for holding food, to name a few.
You will find crack on some products. They are made by an ancient technique. After a celadon piece is done, the body will crack as time goes on, but the glaze will hold it into one piece. The cracks only adds to the sense of artistry of the item.
The shop also provides free tea to visitors who might get thirsty from a day of shopping. The manager is a young, soft-spoken lady. She knows a lot of stories about celadon, which she would like to share with her customers.
Flower-picker Girl 彝家姑娘花戲樂(民俗舞)- by Isabelle Rose Chen(陳湘媛)
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Rose, Be My Love Shaw Brothers (1966) 89 Minutes Region 3 Import: Intercontinental Video Limited (IVL) Mandarin W/Chinese & English Subs Fully Restored From The Original Film. $19.99 Not a love triangle but a love rectangle, “Rose, Be My Love” is a romantic drama set on the eve of Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong’s invasion by the Japanese. Not a love triangle but a love rectangle, “Rose, Be My Love” is a romantic drama that represents the high standards achieved by Shaw Brothers in both star power and technical polish. Set on the eve of Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong’s invasion by the… |
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Sanae to the Wild Rose Patchwork $110.75 … |
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last rose $124.93 … |
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