Shopping in Chengdu?

[Chengdu Londoner]

Hi all,

I’m new to Chengdu and I am trying to find somewhere to buy some clothes, shoes, jeans etc… I know Chunxi road is a good place to start but I am worried it is a overpriced tourist shopping area (like Oxford Street in London or Champs Elysee in Paris) , I have already been to the New Century global centre which is way over priced. I’m looking for reasonably priced Nike, Adidas , New Balance etc… shops/shopping mall

Any help appreciated!

[Charlie]

There are tons of shopping malls in Chengdu… one to check out is Galleria in the South, across the street from Ikea. The name in Chinese is 凯德广场新南店, it should have all of the stores you mentioned. At Chunxi Lu is IFS, another mall. I would skip the Global Center for shopping, although it will likely have a lot of the same stores at this point.

[Vincent]

Raffles City is another really popular and huge shopping mall. TaiKooLi is great for shopping as well. Both have official stores for all those brands you named. But prices for these kind of brands in the official stores are geared towards the upper middle class and you will not find any bargains. They are probably the same, if not more expensive than what you would pay back at home – since they’re international brands. “Overpriced” is simply what those brands cost over here. Expect 600-1200RMB for a pair of Nikes/Adidas. If you want to pay half and get a reasonable shoe or sport outfit you’re going to have to look at local brands like ANTA or 360.

If you want to find fake Nikes, you should avoid shopping malls and just do some exploring and looking around smaller shops. There’s very little of that the be found here apart from Taobao (and even there it’s much less than it used to be), but some older models cheap/fake Nikes can be found. I wouldn’t know exactly where, though.

Shopping in China can be ridiculously cheap, but only if you stick to the local stuff. Especially for a woman if you’re into things like high heels, and don’t mind buying fake leather unbranded shoes.

[Charlie]

That’s true. Name brand stuff tends to be overpriced and non-name brand stuff is often dirt cheap. For basic clothes I like Uniqlo but for shoes or expensive items like jackets I usually get that stuff overseas as it’s cheaper and easier to find items which fit me.

[LongWang]

As stated above, International brands (Nike, Adidas, NB, Under Armour etc) are more expensive here than the UK. Nike and Adidas sometimes have sales, after CNY is a good time for sales almost everywhere. New Balance and Under Armour are never on sale, so if you want them, dont bother waiting around for a sale. I recently paid 819rmb for what I’d class as a 60 quid pair of New Balance.

However, that being said, CXL and Global Centre are no more expensive than any other legit shopping centre in the city, thats just the going rate im afraid.

If you fancy some fakes (I nearly got crippled by fake Adidas) then check Taobao or you may be in luck at the lotus market at the north train station.  The juice may not be worth the squeeze though, as they say in Lahndan – It’s grim up north.

Edited to add: Local Chinese brands can be OK for work-out shoes, Personally I would say Lining are the best of the local brands.

[Vincent]

I actually really like some of the ANTA stuff. They are also the official partner for the gear of the Chinese Olympic teams, so it can’t be that bad.

[Sweet]

In terms of Chinese brands I have purchased a lot of clothing items and footwear by Anta, Li-Ning and Erke and liked what I have bought. I did have to visit several stores to find something which I really liked so if your up for a day of exploring then give it a shot.
However personally taste wise Uniqlo and Muji are my favourites as they don’t have stuff that has been regurgitated on by shiny diamonds, bling-bling, cartoons or Chinglish.

[Author]

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