Special Gifts: Chinese Folk Handicrafts
If you stroll around the Forbidden City, you will notice the presence of many handicraft shops in the neighboring streets. This is one of the pleasures of this area: there is an abundance of small joints carrying folkloric items from the Chinese provinces. Oftentimes, these will make great gift ideas.
When you have spent some time in Beijing, and you have seen a great number of these shops, it become easier and easier to recognize if their offer is attractive - both in terms of quality and prices - or if the owners try to make a quick buck on your back.
Nan Chi Zi street harbors a number of such shops, and I found one there which I think should be told about. Like many others, it offers handmade objects from the Chinese minorities, but also some “purely Beijing” items which are worth a second look.
The shop is a happy capharnam, by which I mean an organized disorder of hundred of small items which could each be offered as surprising, unusual gifts of ethnic flavor.
Enter the shop, and bob your head if you are over 6 ft. The ceiling is decorated with red and yellow lanterns from the Shandong province, as well as lucky pendants the Chinese people love to offer their families and friends.
You can’t miss the small wooden figurines called ‘happiness dolls’ either: if some friends of yours are about to tie the knot, buy a couple of ‘Huan Xi Wa Wa’ - their name in Chinese. These dolls symbolize the longevity of the life-long bond which is to unite newlyweds. They are small enough to be carried back home without any problem, and they will make absolutely unique wedding gifts.
The Chinese people love symbols, and are die-hard buyers of objects which symbolize luck, prosperity, wealth, happiness, and other such good fortune-bringing decoration items.
Among the other decorative objects offered by the shop, you can’t but notice the braided pendants. Shaped as fish and Chinese zodiac animals, or Chinese characters such as ‘Luck’ and ‘Love’, these red pendants are great handmade gifts.
If you check this shop out, don’t overlook the painted clay figurines reproducing gates of old Beijing residences. Made according to ancient clay-modeling techniques, these genuine works of art bear a rather exquisite level of details.
The artists even thought of adding the familiar weeds typically found on old roofs in the Beijing Hutongs (the old alleyways), and the worn-out stone stairs leading up to the richer courtyards (traditionally, the higher the flight of stairs, the richer the home owner).
Truly good examples of naive art which would make a cool gift for collectors and children alike.