Shopping in Xi’an

    Xi'an is a famous tourism city in China and has been the largest commercial and trading center in northwestern China. It boasts a wide variety of tourism commodities, which are mainly divided into three categoriestraditional arts and crafts, folk handicrafts and replicas of cultural relics. They are imitations of products of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), imitations of tri-colored glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and imitations of ancient bronze ware. In Xi' an tourists can also find the rubbings of handwriting by famous ancient calligraphers of various dynasties, rubbings of eaves tiles, embroideries of the Qin Dynasty, artistic porcelain ware, lacquer ware, jade carvings, cloisonne, paper-cuts, leather silhouette, copies of the murals of the Tang Dynasty, and paintings by the farmers of Huxian County, featuring strong Chinese traditions and local characteristics.

Popular Souvenirs
    -Imitations of Qin Terracotta Figures: Xi’an is a world-famous city for her ancient culture. It abounds with historical sites and cultural relics, among which the terra-cotta figures of the Qin Dynasty are considered to be the most outstanding. The 8,000 life-size terra-cotta warriors and horses are arranged in majestic-looking battle array, and vividly reproduced the great daring of Qin Shihuang when he unified China. These terracotta figures show a surprisingly high level in craftsmanship and sculpture, and are now hailed as "the eighth wonder of the world". It attracts tens of thousands of tourists both from home and abroad who come here just to feast their eyes on this magnificent sight.
    - Reproductions of Chin Dynasty Bronze Chariot and Horse: The lifelike reproductions of Chin Dynasty bronze chariot and horse are modeled on the No. one and No. two bronze chariot and horse unearthed from the Chin Dynasty First Emperor's mausoleum. They are so vivid that they can mix with the genuine. They have been sung high praise by the insiders and tourists from home and foreign countries. Now, the reproductions have become the collector's item in the treasury of Chinese crafts and arts. In these years, many reproductions have been taken as the largess of the state guests to be presented to the foreign governments and the heads of state.
    - Tang Sancai Replicas: Tang sancai (tri-colored glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty) is a kind of famous handicraft article made in Tang Dynasty, which had assimilated the artistic style of traditional Chinese paintings and sculptures when being made. These potteries have rough lines, bold outlines and splendid colors, they look very harmonious. The colored glazes on the potteries are very brilliant, when the unglazed potteries were burnt out from the pottery kilns they were glazed the dark reddish brown, grass green and blove. These potteries look simple but well-rounded, grandiloquent but distortionless, which show a very high state of art.
The genuine articles of Tang sancai are cultural relics of the country you cannot buy on the market unless you go for the auction. Now there are many Tang sancai Replicas are sold on the antique markets in Xi'an. There are tri-colored glazed ceramic figurines, tri-colored glazed ceramic horses, tri-colored glazed ceramic camels, and tri-colored glazed ceramic wares etc. These replicas are distinctive in style and with unique artistic charm, which are treasured up by the visitors from home and abroad.
    -Paper Cutting: Paper cutting is an extremely popular folk art in the Shaanxi Province villages. On days of celebration such as holidays and weddings, villagers like to decorate the doors and windows of their homes with colorful paper cuttings. 
The designs of the paper cuttings are rich and varied, but they always feature symbols of good luck and happiness as the main theme. Other secondary themes include landscape scenes, legends and myths, and folk stories. These folk paper cuttings are usually inexpensive, but you should still bargain.
    - Bally Band: Bellyband is the traditional close-fitting finery of the people in the central Shanxi plain and the Northern Shanxi. It looks something like the front part of the waistcoat, and there are two strips on it upper end for tying the neck, and the other two are on the lower end for tying the waist. Bellyband is used for preventing the belly from catching a cold. In these areas, both adults and children wear bellybands. The adults wear them for underwear, while the children wear the bands for dress. When wearing the bands in the hot days, the children look very naive.
    The bellyband has two tiers. Both sides of it are openings for putting money or other things into it. The inner linings of the bellybands are all white cloth, those for children which outer linings are made from red cloth, and those for adults which outer linings are made from black cloth. The outer linings of the bellybands usually are embroidered the colorful pictures. For example, those for children have a tiger head embroidery or the pictures of the five poisonous animals (scorpion, snake, centipede, gecko, toad). Those for the newlyweds are embroidered two mandarin ducks swimming on water which indicates the conjugal love of the newlyweds. In Lington area where most bellybands embroidered toads, they are their amulets and the symbol of procreation worship. But in the Dali and Heyang Counties, the bellybands look like calabash or pumpkin. Because the two things have many seeds and they are the staple food of the ancient people, which symbolize more children and happiness.