One of my favorite things to do in Beijing is to spend a couple of hours wandering around the market at Panjiayuan. It's a huge market area with a bunch of wholesale-type vendors, as well as many many random people selling all manner of antique and faux-antique goods. I've had some really cool finds from here over the years, and the trick is definitely to go slow, take your time, and to keep a "look around" mindset, rather than a "must buy something" mindset. I normally gravitate towards the porcelains, but on this trip, nothing there jumped out and screamed "BUY ME!" Instead, I picked up these amazing pieces of embroidery (from the tiniest old lady - I'm 5'3" and she only came up to my armpit), and some tiny animal figurines for $2 apiece. FUN.
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