Fabric Shopping Made Easy
[Note: Veteran PRD writer -- and shopper -- Susan Buchanan takes you shopping, because in Shenzhen, when you're shopping, you’re "Doing Your Civic Duty."]
If I could take my love for going to the tailor and express it in some sort of finite, physical amount, that number would exactly match the amount that I hate shopping for fabric in Luohu Commercial City. All the touching, the inflated prices and the ladies calling me missy add up to a pretty stressful experience. I do love fabric shopping, though, and I'm willing to go slightly out of my way for a more pleasant experience. There are a couple of big markets on the east side of Dongmen Rd., across from the shopping area and on a stink hole of an alley. They're pretty good, but they're basically mini-Luohu Commercial Cities. The ones I want to suggest in this article are the ones you might not stumble upon otherwise. They're a little off the beaten track, but dedicated shoppers will be rewarded.
Datongle Market, Dongmen Middle Rd.
("Large Tongel Textile Wholesale Business City")
Fabrics on floors 1-3, notions and accessories on 4 and 5
- 2/F, Shop 138-139
This has been my favorite fabric shop for a while, but when the owner met my mom, they bonded in Shanghainese and I started to get more free bits of fabric. But even if you have to pay, their selection of shirt fabrics is worth the trip. You can find white cotton blends and oddly textured polyesters at any shirt fabric shop, but this one has a lot of interesting stripes and plaids in a range of colors, and most of them are 100% cotton or a nice-feeling cotton/synthetic blend. Recently I've been looking everywhere for a plaid that I'm not embarrassed to wear, and I found a great one there in a color palette that reminds me of Oscar the Grouch, but in a good way. Shirt fabrics are 18 a meter, and almost everything else in the shop is cheaper.
- 3/F, Shop 208
After a fight with a salesman who told me the wrong price and then told me that I heard him wrong because I'm a foreigner, I swore never to come back here. But they have a fair selection of that nice cotton/silk blend that's big in the summer, so I swallowed my pride and went back. Thankfully that salesman wasn't there and a boy with skinny jeans and spiky hair waited on me instead. I got a thin cotton flower print for 10/meter and a green cotton/silk blend polka-dot print for 18/meter. They have a few good thicker fabrics for jackets and pants as well.
Shenzhen Metropark Cloth Plaza (jing hua bu liao cheng) 京华布
- Shop A001
As my new favorite, this store holds a special place in my heart, and my pocketbook. This market is on the left if you're walking north from the Dongmen shopping area, and it's less of a market and more of a hallway with a store or two. The shop at A001 is the biggest one in the hallway, and it's made up of rows and rows of fabric rolls, with wools and winter-weight fabrics on the left and light silks and cottons on the right. The place is usually empty, and you can browse undisturbed until you're ready to initiate the buying process. It's eerie at first, being alone in a forest of fabrics, but there are so many to choose from that you'll need the quiet to think. I bought some light cotton prints for 12/meter and some heavy cotton twill for 18/meter.
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Also suggested:
Aoyun Cheng (Olympic City), Dongmen Middle Rd.
Fabrics on floors 1-2, wholesale sellers and notions on the upper floors
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Finding your way
Actually, the last place mentioned, Aoyun Cheng, is the best place to start.
Come out of any street in the Dongmen central area and turn left on Dongmen Lu. Walk north 5 minutes or so and you'll see Aoyun Cheng on your left. Watch for the bridge.
Once you've found this, the rest is easy. Go up onto the bridge; referring to the pictures above, look across the street to your left (up the street) to see Datongle, and to your right (down the street) to see the Metropark Cloth Plaza (Jing Hua Market).
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