Shenzhen sits on an exceptional position compared to most of other cities in China, with its wide selections of brand name merchandise, either domestic made or imported.
There are four main commercial districts within Shenzhen city. The area around the railway station is particularly good for clothes. The district between Shanghai Hotel and SEG Electronics Co. mainly sells electric appliances, which are a particularly good bargain here. If it is smaller commodities that you are looking for, try the streets around Dong Men and Old District.
Famous-brand products from clothes to cosmetics are available in the flashy department stores such as Xiwu Department Store and the International Commercial Market along the roads between Shenzhen Grand Theater and Renmin (People's) Bridge. Zhongying Street (Boundary Street) in the Shatoujiao District is another good place to purchase quality products. There are a few overseas stores in the downtown area, such as Carrefour, Makro and Trust Mart. Wal Mart, the American supermarket chain, also has a branch in downtown.
Dongjie is a famous pedestrian shopping precinct in Shenzhen, where the areca trees and tasteful wooden benches in the central square add to it an exotic touch. Here one may experience supreme ease of shopping for the broadest diversity of goods at the lowest price.
International Trade Tower, together with Friendship City form a major shopping center where many well known merchants operate, such as International Trade Department Store, Duty Free Shop, Oriental New World, Tianhong Store, Xiangyun Department Store. These stores carry relative expensive premium goods.
In Old Downtown area, small shops stand closely next to each other. Bargaining is accepted here. The area that is close to Shanghai Hotel on Central Shennan Road, Futian District, is another stop for shoppers. Discount stores, specialized markets such as Electronics City, SEG are ideal places to buy home appliances, communication equipment and customized computers. Woman's World, draws many female shoppers. Of course, nobody would forget Zhongying Street that separates Hong Kong and Shenzhen, where people can experience the pleasure of looking for duty free bargains under two different systems.
Nanao Seafood Street Nanao Town, located at Longgang District, has a seafood street best known for dried aquatic products. Businesses are running well here. Every weekend, especially before Spring Festival, crowded shoppers make the town full of the holiday atmosphere. There are a wide variety of the products, some are local-produced, some others are imported from foreign countries. Prices can run up to thousand yuan per pound.
Dried sea products are high in nutrition value, and are easy to carry and preserve. Also because the pronunciation of 'fish' sounds same as that of 'Rich' in Chinese, it is quite common for Chinese people to send each other with seafood as holiday gifts.
