During your stay in Beijing it is most likely that you will have visited Beijing’s fake markets atleast one time, if not more. These ‘fake’ markets are basically 5 to 6 story buildings packed with stalls and shops that sell counterfeited products. You can get just about anything at these markets, products range from toys to clothing to electronics to apparel to suitcases to souvenirs. Going to these fake markets can be fun, you’ll notice that the employees there are trying to get you to their stall. You’ll also notice that you (might) be getting more compliments than you normally do, you handsome son of a gun! So going to these fake markets will also help you if you’re feeling a bit down or depressed.

There are several different fake markets in Beijing. (Silk Market, Yashow market, Pearl market, Zoo market etc.) I’ll be discussing just two of them, as these are the most popular and known in Beijing. Let’s start with the most popular one;

Fake market’s: The Silk Market and the Yashow market

The Silk Market is situated near Xiushui east street in the Chaoyang district. At the moment there are over 400 stalls and about 1000 employees (so you can imagine how big it is). Right, enough with the facts, lets get to business.

Getting there

The Silk Market

If you want to go to the silk market you can get there in several different ways. If you want to go there by taxi, you can simply tell the driver to go to Xiushui (pronounced: Shoeshway). Usually they will know that this means you want to go to the Silk Market, so they will drop you off there or nearby. If they don’t understand you can also name the subway station that is situated next to the silk market: Yonganli station (pronounced the same in english, but station in Chinese is: Zhan). This subway station is situated right beside (or below) the silk market.

So if you want to go there by subway you should get off at Yonganli. Yonganli is a station on line 1.

The Yashow Market

The Yashow market is located on Gongtibeilu in the Sanlitun district. Going there by taxi you can tell the driver to go to Yashow (pronounced the same in English). He will understand.

If you want to go there by subway, you will also have to walk for 5 – 10 minutes from the subway station. The subway station is called Tuanjiehu station. This station is situated on line 10. If you get out at Tuanjiehu you just need to walk west along Gongtibeilu, past the bar street. On the left hand side you will pass an appartment building called ‘SOHO’ and on the right hand side you will finally see a 5 story building labelled Yashow market.