Tucked in the west end of Beijing's boisterous restaurant street Gui Jie, Shixiang Zizai offers an escape for those of us who long for a moment of peace during the day. I do.

Though a store, Shixiang Zizai also features a library and a teahouse where their patrons can educate themselves on Tibetan culture.

The room features over a dozen Thangka paintings collected from the Qinghai Province in Northwestern China, and cozy tables covered with Tibetan linen. On the shelves, numerous books about Tibetan culture and Buddhism, and some travelogues.

Thangkas are paintings or embroideries on cloth scrolls (silk and other materials) usually found in Buddhist monasteries and devout Tibetan homes. Shixiang Zizai sell some of these religious works of art.

The store is run by a young lawyer and Tibetan college students. They strive to support education in Tibet through the sale of Thangkas and volunteer work.

You can also sit inside, and enjoy a cup of Tibetan buttered tea and other drinks. They are served with cookies, for 40-50 yuans a pot. For internet addicts like me, the WiFi connection makes my day.

The address: 14-5 Chaoyangmennei Dajie, Doncheng District, Beijing

Nearest metro station: ChaoYangMen Station

I was shopping with my better half, Xu, in the Shuangan Plaza, not too far from the Sariz Hotel on the North 3rd Ring Road of Beijing, when Xu noticed the Sigin storefront.

Sigin is a a women’s leisure apparel brand, known for its traditional Chinese patterned garments for women aged 25 to 45.

According to one of the shop assistants, all their models are made in Beijing, and are 100% cotton. We are in the winter season, so the shop currently stocks mainly jackets. They also carry cotton shirts, sweaters, scarves, hats, and pants.

Xu looked at an interesting white cotton jacket with a traditional Chinese style collar, selling for 1180 yuans. It felt surprising light, and looks kinda sleek.

Prices for winter clothing range from 300 to 3000 yuans. Small items like scarves and hats sell for 150-800 yuans. If you are in Beijing for some time, take the Shuang’an Plaza membership card, and you'll benefit from a 5% discount on merchandise. The shop assistants speak a little English.

Shop address:  2^nd floor, Shuang’an plaza, No.38 west North 3^rd Ring Rd, Haidian district, Beijing.

I like to shop for specialty products in Beijing, away from the overpriced major international brands you find in WangFuJing, Xidan, and the likes of the Youyi Shopping Center.

XinJiang Specialty Store is one of these places where you can spend a little money without remorse. It offers specialty products coming directly from the Sinkiang province, in Northwestern China.

Sinkiang is a special autonomous region, home to the Uighur ethnic group. The area produces some of the best tasting honeydews, raisins, Korla pears, and wines you can find in China.

Located nearby the Jishuitan subway station, the shop carries dried fruits such as raisins, dried tomatoes, and dried Chinese dates (jujuba). Their beef jerky has god reputation. That the shop offers so many dry products is due mainly to the harsh climate of the XinJiang region.

Vineyards in XinJiang create wine from both grapes and honeydews. To me, the shop assistant recommended a sweet-tasting honeydew wine sold at 15 yuans a bottle. According to her, the wine is very popular with their female clientele. 

Price range: from 10 to 200 yuans, with some items on sale.

If you feel the ski bug when you are in Beijing, know that the mountains are only about an hour away. So it's always possible to slip into a pair of boots, and drive there in a hurry to try the slopes.

But rent of buy? I personally prefer to buy my equipment, and if you're like me, here is the retailer you need: Aishanqing, north on Madian East Rd, middle North 3^rd Ring Rd, Haidian district, Beijing.

Aishanqing translates as ‘Love the Feel of the Mountains’, and carries everything you need for your trip to the Beijing mountains.

When you enter the shop, ski clothes and hats are on your left hand, ski goggles on the shelves in the middle, and ski shoes/boards towards the back.

The shop recommends Wing, a Korean brand made in China, at Qingdao. Wing has a good reputation in China, and its production is priced at reasonable levels. A pair of yellow Wing ski glasses in thermoplastic polyurethane sells for 460 yuans. 

Other price samples: ski apparel, from 300 to 1000 yuans; ski equipment, 1000 to 3000 yuans; ski goggles, 300 to 600 yuans.

The shop assistants speak a little English, and they are open to bargaining.

To understand better who was arguably the most influential thinker in the history of China, the best place in Beijing is probably the Confucius Temple, an age-old city landmark honoring this prominent thinker.

Not surprisingly, this is also the location of the Imperial College. For hundreds of years, the most talented students from all over the country came here to study, and prepare to land a job in the government.

Today, the temple draws in a large number of domestic and foreign tourists alike.

Exit the subway at Exit B of the ANDINGMEN station, located on Line 2 of Beijing subway. Just as you leave the station, make a left onto ANDINGMEN NEIDAJIE (Inside AnDingMen St.).

Before the city walls came down, the intersection here used to stand the An Ding Gate – Gate of Stability – from which the street is named after. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, imperial forces used to enter Beijing through this gate when they came back from a victorious campaign.

My European name is Phil, my Chinese name is Jie. I decided to write this blog after I settled down in Beijing, China, and experienced the life of a Beijinger for several months. There is so much to China today, and so little is known!

The information usually available in the West is at best 'filtered', and not very reliable. And I do not mean filtered by the Chinese government. I mean filtered by... corporate and political interests in the West.

Very unfortunate, since China is a wonderful country which is largely unknown to Westerners. Walk for an afternoon in Beijing, and you'll be lucky to come across the path of more than a handful of foreign tourists. Of course, Beijing is not China, like Paris is not France, and NYC isn't America. But still, with a population of over 13 million people, you'd expect the Chinese capital to overflow with tourists.

Not so. 

So, what does that leave us? Wow, that leaves us with an entire city to present to the world! Hence this blog, which will be my personal information kiosk. My non-personal information portal is www.shopping-in-beijing.com, a portal I started with 8 other friends, all Beijingers (either by right of birth, or by adoption) and all Chinese nationals (oops, except one of them who is American of Chinese descent). 

Shopping-in-Beijing.com is a non-commercial website (at least at the date I'm writing those lines) designed to improve your experience of Beijing when you'll take the trip to here. We visited hundreds of shops (yes, literally) to help you bring back the gift or souvenir which will tell you and your kin or friends "I've been to Beijing, look what I got!". www.Shopping-in-Beijing.com also contains maps of the city: it can be difficult to find your way in Beijing if you don't have a good map. Let alone find a specific shop. My friends are talented programmers, and we decided to use digital maps and pinpoint the shops on them. I hope you'll find that practical.

Here, I'll post information which I won't post on the portal. Other shops, walks in Beijing, photos, personal comments. We'll see how it evolves. For now, that'll be more of a scrap book than anything else.

Anyways, thank you for reading, and I hope you'll take the trip to Beijing one of these days. You will enjoy it, guaranteed!