Beijing Antique Market

In Beijing, the cultural center of China, the most popular place for you to go and see is the Antique Market. A visit to the Antique Market is as important a part of a foreigner芒鈧劉s tour in Beijing as the Great Wall, the Peking duck and the Forbidden City.
Panjiayuan Antique Market.

Panjiayuan Antique Market is Beijing芒鈧劉s biggest and best-known arts, crafts, and antiques market.
It is located in southwest Beijing, near the Panjiayuan Bridge, East 3rd Ring Road South, Chaoyang District. It covers an area of 48,500 square meters, of which 26,000 square meters area is for business. There are over 4,000 shops in the market, with nearly 10,000 dealers, 70% of whom come from other parts of China.

The market is divided into five parts:
1. Buddhism Statues Area: It is in the western part of the market, it is an open-air area where large stone sculptures are sold out of trucks.
2. Antique Furniture Area: It is besides Buddhism Statues Area, two-storied building that houses traditional furniture and Cultural Revolution articles.
3. High-rank Antique Store Area: There more exquisite and more expensive handicrafts were sold in the small indoor stores.
4. Books and Scrolls Area: It is a narrow lane in the south where secondhand books and ancient scrolls are sold.
5. Middle Area: a semi-covered area that forms the main part of the market. This is open only at the weekends. Ii can be divided into four zones:

Zone One: a dizzying array of Chinese paintings, calligraphic works as well as beads and jade.
Zone Two: beads, bronze vessels, ceramic vases and small wooden furniture.
Zone Three: Chinese ethnic minority arts and crafts, trinkets, antiques and apparel. Many of these traders are from Tibet.
Zone Four: Chinese ceramics