Shopping
Markets, boutiques and makers worth seeking out, city by city
Browse Shopping
From covered food halls and flea markets to independent boutiques and artisan studios, these are the shops and markets our local guides love around the world. Browse the picks below and filter by city and budget to find where to shop like a local.
Pantang Village, Liwan
Why it matters: architecture graduate Liu Erxi opened 1200bookshop in July 2014 – Guangzhou’s first 24-hour bookstore – after walking 1,200km around Taiwan on the kindness of strangers, and he paid it forward by keeping a small room of free beds for backpackers, who write in with their story and reasons for wanting to stay. He called himself the city’s night watchman, and in the first two and a half years more than ten thousand people slept here: students, backpackers, people struggling with depression, homeless kids, elderly waste-pickers. Daytime sales covered the nighttime losses, and Liu said he would keep the lights on even if only ten people showed up after dark. The Liwan Lake Park flagship, 1200book&bed, is the one to visit – a bookstore, cafe and hostel in Pantang Village, a 15-minute walk from Changshou Lu metro and the best base for wandering Liwan’s craft workshops and second-hand shops.
3e Avenue is the beating heart of Old Limoilou, the leafy grid of streets just across the river from Quebec City’s walled old town. Locals treat this stretch — running roughly between…
The best-known bookshop in Albania, right on Skanderbeg Square, with strong literature, travel and art sections. Locals and visitors love browsing its design and photography titles and English-language shelves.
Bedesten / City Center
Why it matters: the Alanya Koza women’s cooperative revived the near-lost craft of the Alanya silk-cocoon flower (Ipek Kozasi Cicegi) – a skill only two women in town still knew – and grew it into a registered local trademark and paid work for local women. Members hand-shape silkworm cocoons into delicate flowers and also weave silk scarves, home textiles and banana-fibre gifts. Buy the signature silk-cocoon flowers as a souvenir that actually supports the maker. Tip: look for the cooperative’s stalls in the bedesten market beside Alanya Castle.
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