Buy clothes, shoes, bags, jackets, hats, and all sorts of accessories at Qipu Road (七铺路), which sounds like “cheap” said with a Chinese accent, Shanghai’s famous and infamous wholesale shopping area. More popular with local retailers who sometimes get their stock here at wholesale prices, these shops also offer single item sales. Don’t let the chaos stop you, there are good quality clothing there for a fraction of the price in retail shops. Warning: Bargaining powers needed.

Although the whole Qipu Road stretch is full of malls packed with hundreds of small shops, you will easily spend half a day in one mall alone (if you’re a shopper). A good mall to start with is the Qipu XingWang Clothing Market (七铺兴旺服饰市场), which joins with the adjacent Shanghai XingWang International Finery City (上海兴旺国际服饰城) in an enclosed bridge at the 2nd and 3rd floors. So if it rains, you can go from one building to the other using the connecting bridge in these two buildings.

At Qipu XingWang Clothing Market, this is how the building is structured:

B1: Shoes, luggages, Bags. You’ll be able to find imitation branded shoes and bags here as well.

1st Floor: Very local clothing and accessories. Always start bargaining from 30% of the asking price.

2nd Floor: A mixture of local and export clothing. Start bargaining from 30-50% of the asking price.

3rd Floor: This is where I’ve found the most good quality items, even branded originals at a fraction of the retail price. Prices are a little less elastic here, and the sellers here are not that interested in bargaining with you than the lower levels. You can find Japanese, Korean, and many American brands on this level. Whether they’re imitations or the real thing, that’s up to you to judge and mind.

4th and 5th Floors: I usually don’t bother. Kinda random wholesale clothes, supposedly export quality.

Tips:

1. Go on weekday mornings to avoid weekend crowds, and bargaining is more successful, especially if you’re the first customer of the day (believed to bring them luck or something)

2. For export clothes (3rd floor), knock off about 20% of their asking price. E.g. if the seller wants 100RMB, ask for 80RMB. For items in the 1st and 2nd floors, offer them 30% of their asking price, and don’t add on to your price easily. Even if you do, maybe add 5RMB.

3. Don’t follow the touts. They get a cut from the sale made at the shop they bring you to, which means the price you pay is marked up even more.

Opening Hours: Opens early in the morning and close about 5-6pm.

 

   

Getting There:

Take metro line 10 to Tiantong Road Station (天潼路), exit 1.

168 Qipu Road, 七铺路168号

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