The Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau has launched "Shopping in China," a bilingual Chinese-English digital guide that's more useful than its modest name suggests. It is a compact companion for anyone visiting Beijing that consolidates the city's dining, shopping, attractions, events and practical essentials into one place.

Designed to give visitors a single, well-organized entry point into everything the city has to offer – from its landmark malls and time-honored brands to hutong itineraries, monthly events calendar, and a practical primer on navigating life in Beijing as a foreigner, the guide is structured around six chapters, each covering a distinct slice of the visitor experience. Let's take a deeper dive. 

Premium shopping: Where to go and how to find it

The first chapter maps Beijing's landmark commercial areas and distinctive shopping destinations, organized by district. For visitors who want to shop but don't know where to start – or who have heard of Sanlitun, Solana or Wangfujing but aren't sure what sits around them – this is the practical orientation that most travel guides skim over. District-by-district maps make it easy to plan a route rather than wander and hope.

Curated selections: The best of Chinese-style gifting

This is the chapter for anyone who has spent time in Beijing trying to find a gift other than a fridge magnet. Curated Selections is a curated edit of iconic Chinese-style gifts such as creative cultural products, items rooted in intangible cultural heritage, time-honored Chinese brands and selected local delicacies.

Flavors and dining: From Peking duck to Sichuan fire

Beijing's food scene is extremely vast and, for the uninitiated, can be hard to navigate. The Flavors & Dining chapter of the guide organizes it usefully into traditional Beijing specialties like Peking duck and hotpot, classic regional cuisines from Sichuan, Shandong and beyond, and international options for days when the palate craves something familiar. Of course, no guide can be exhaustive, but as a starting point for deciding where to eat, it covers the essentials without overwhelming.

Explore the city: Itineraries built around what you're after

Centered on Chang'an Avenue and the Beijing Central Axis, the 7.8-kilometer spine of the city that runs through some of its most significant heritage sites, the Explore the City chapter offers themed itineraries instead of a list of attractions. Traditional Beijing culture, modern entertainment, and art experiences each get their own suggested route. For first-time visitors especially, this kind of pre-structured exploration tends to surface places that pure spontaneity would miss.

Events and experiences: A monthly planner built in

Beijing's cultural calendar is very busy and, for visitors who don't read Chinese, it can be largely invisible. 

One of the more practically valuable inclusions is the Events & Experiences chapter, which provides monthly listings of major conferences, expos, sports events, and cultural performances across the city. Having all these consolidated in an English-language format and updated monthly turns what is usually a last-minute discovery into something that can be planned around.

Easy entry: The practical stuff, answered

The final chapter addresses the questions that international visitors invariably have but rarely find answered in one place. Essential apps, transportation options, the instant tax refund policy, and medical tips are all covered under Easy Entry – a section designed to reduce the low-grade anxiety that comes with navigating an unfamiliar city. It sits alongside the kind of information covered in Beijing's recently updated English Map and the GO BEIJING platform.

One guide, one QR code

The guide is available digitally, accessible via this link or the QR code below.

Taken alongside the 2025 English Map upgrade, the GO BEIJING platform, and the expanded International Web Portal, Shopping in China is another piece of a picture that is becoming increasingly coherent: Beijing is building a genuinely comprehensive digital ecosystem through its constant updates of digital infrastructure for international visitors, one resource at a time. Check it out!

Editor's note: Zaruhi Poghosyan is a multimedia editor for CGTN Digital. This article is part of a series on Beijing's evolving digital services for international visitors. 

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