China Guide
The Yellow River
Shopping
1 Small Goose Pagoda art shops In the Small Goose Pagoda temple compound and at a shop just behind it Especially good for bright, simple folk paintings, usually of country scenes. This traditional Shaanxi art form, appealing for the decorative, flat design and lush colours, was popular in China in the 1970s for the idealistic, upbeat portrayal of peasant life. Xi'an has a strong artistic pedigree, and the paintings available here are much more varied in style than those you see elsewhere in China.
2 Huajue Xiang souvenir alley Outside the Great Mosque The place to go for small souvenirs, engraved chopsticks, teapots, chiming balls, curved Islamic shabaria knives, Mao watches and other tourist knick-knacks. Some stalls sell small figures of terracotta soldiers in a mesh basket; you can bargain them down to just a few yuan, but the figures aren't fired properly, and will leave your hands black whenever you touch them.
3 City Antiques Market About a block south of the Small Goose Pagoda on Zhuque Dajie The best place to go for antiques, with some genuine antiques and oddities (such as old military gear) at reasonable prices, and Mao-era artwork with price tags that show the dealers here know how much these things sell for overseas.
4 Foreign Languages Bookstore Dong Dajie The best bookshop, with many books in English about China and Xi'an in particular, along with translations of Chinese classics and a large selection of Victorian and early twentieth-century English-language novels.