Shopping

With generally overinflated prices, Guilin is no place for bargains. Snacks and candies that make nice gifts include guihua su (a crisp, sweet osmanthus cracker) and guihua wangcha (osmanthus flower tea). The newest attraction, the Zhengyang Pedestrian Street, has a plethora of shops and stalls selling everything from teapots and jade to clothing and overpriced minority handicrafts and embroidery. The Guilin Weixiao Tang Shangsha (Guilin Niko Niko Do Co, Ltd.) at Zhongshan Zhong Lu 187, open from 9am to 10:30pm, is the largest department store in town.

Guilin's Darker Days-- Although the basement-level CD store of the Xinhua Bookstore on Zhongshan Bei Lu is not particularly well stocked, it does offer an insight into Guilin's past. Check out the heavy steel bomb doors at the entrance, remnants from a paranoid time when every building had such an installation for fear of Soviet attack.