Shopping in Nyingchi
Nyingchi’s Local Special Products
The “Mt. Everest” green tea, “Giant Panda” woolen blanket and “Qizheng” pain killer bandage made in Nyingchi are good sellers in both home and world market. Nyingchi possesses a wide variety of plants, among which, many are of high economic values. Good examples are mushroom, fungi, bamboo shoot, pepper, Bajiao (a sort of spice), oil melon (70% plus oil), 100 meters long white vine, and fern erne etc. There are more than 1,000 kinds of herbs here as well, e.g. the five-eye fruit (for heart attack), the Chujiu (for cancer), the Antai flower (for malaria) and so on and so forth.
The local handicrafts are also known to the outside world such as the Menba wood bowel and bamboo ware, the Luoba stone pan and pottery. The Luoba stone pan is famous for its unique material and design. The pottery is rough pottery, which the locals use for barter. The Menba wood bowel is made of some hard wood like that of azalea, willow and birch. It gives a special flavor to the wine or ghee tea it contains. The portable bowel seldom splits open. It is color fast and not easy to alter its shape. They are therefore the favorite of the local Tibetans, especially those made of rock cypress, and birch root, which the locals believe can detect poisons. The bowels made in the Dawangshangjielin Village Motuo are thought to be the best.
The place where the Menba People live abounds with various trees and bamboos that supply abundant materials for wood and bamboo wares. The Bangqiong, a sort of bamboo ware, is the most famous. Made of hundreds of very slim bamboo splints, Bangqiong is painted with different colors like red, black, blue and yellow. The designs on its body are primarily geometric figures. The Menba vine wares are equally famous. Additionally the locals also have such handicrafts as wax printing, spinning and paper manufacturing.
Shops in the Nyingchi Prefecture
As a crucial logistic center in southeast Tibet, every day various commodities come to Bayi from Lhasa, Chengdu, or even Beijing, Canton and Shanghai for trade. In the meantime local products sell out from here. Probably due to the fact that it has been aided by Canton, Bayi looks more like a Cantonese town than a Tibetan one and its living pace is even faster than that of Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. In the Hongji Market at the heart of the town shoppers can easily buy things ranging from fruits, vegetable and seafood that come from inner China to local goods such as mushroom etc. The downtown also abounds with a large number of teahouses, bars, hotels, Internet cafes and supermarkets.
1. The tourists can buy all the Tibetan daily life utensils in the shops opened by the Kangba People on the 500 meters long “Hong Kong Street” in Bayi.
2. Bayi is a very important logistic center in the southeast of Tibet. And the Nyingchi trade fair during the Liangbusula Festival is a good choice for shoppers.