I’ve wandered through the narrow lanes of Pingyao, Lijiang, and Dali, and every time the same question pops up among travelers: what’s actually behind all those shopfronts. After spending enough time in these old towns, I can tell you the experience is far more layered than a quick glance suggests, and the answer to what you’ll find there depends almost entirely on which lane you’re standing in.
What to Buy at Old Town Shops in China
The sheer variety catches you off guard. In Pingyao, you’ll find handwoven silk scarves and locally roasted soybean snacks that genuinely taste different from anything in a modern supermarket. Lijiang’s shops lean toward silver jewelry, butter tea, and Naxi script booklets. Dali, of course, is all about handicrafts—wooden carvings, batik fabrics, and herbal tea blends that the shopkeepers will happily steep for you to taste before you commit to buying a tin.
What trips up most visitors is the markup. Prices in old town shops in China run anywhere from 30 to 60 percent above the local market rate, simply because you’re paying for the street, the view, and the story. That doesn’t make it a rip-off; it just means if you want a decent silk scarf, haggling down from the asking price works better than just nodding.
Are Old Town Shops in China Overpriced
Some of them are, and some are worth every cent. The shop in Lijiang where I bought a Naxi silver bracelet for 180 yuan turned out to be a genuine local family workshop—my companion had visited their factory the day before and knew the wholesale price. On the flip side, the handmade leather goods sold near Dali’s main square cost four times what you’d pay at the tannery two towns over,and the stitching was noticeably sloppier.
The trick is to walk a few blocks away from the main drag. The shops tucked behind the restaurants and tea houses tend to be run by people who actually live there, not by a franchise operation that slaps the same price tag on Lijiang, Pingyao, and Dali alike.
You won’t leave an old town in China with a full shopping bag and a full wallet, but you will leave with a better sense of what’s real and what’s performance. And that’s half the fun.