Hong Qiao Pearl Market

A multistory mall that has just one main featured product—pearls—of differing color quality. Treat it a visit as a fun exercise rather than a serious pearl-buying expedition. The pearls are presented in hundreds of ways, and those with Chinese-style designs and motifs make smashing souvenirs or gifts, regardless of their provenance or quality. This is New China in action, where the state and a free market collide. The stallholders appear to be entrepreneurs, instead of state employees, judging by the way they persuasively approach shoppers with well-honed spiels, in the kind of stilted textbook English that is so pervasive in China. Still, all you need to be an effective entrepreneur is a decent sales pitch and the ability to convert from renminbi (it translates as “people’s money”) to dollars in a flash. Some of the individual-stall jewelry designs are funky, while the upper-level stores are swankier places for more serious pearl connoisseurs. Along the sides of the cavernous floor are closed-in stalls selling memorabilia and knickknacks.