Introduction
Area around SEG
Go to SEG and walk in the direction of MOI, Women’s World etc. Opposite of Women’s world you will find a large building where they sell lots of mobile phones and computer hardware. You need to look quite careful, but one of the signs says something like “Gift market”. You first walk a few meters towards a parking area and then you see a bakery to your right and to the left you see the stairs to the gift shop. It consists of several small shops each with one sales person. It’s conveniently located close to the big shopping area and it’s possible to find something here, but the selection is not very good.
Luohu area – Sungang Gifts City
Close to Hoba furniture store in Luohu district, this is a very good area to buy gifts. There are several very big warehouses with countless small shops inside. Lots of locals will also go to this area to buy gifts. You may go to “1 – GIFTS” called “Sungang Art&Craft City” in the map below. In the the first building there are 3 corridors with small shops on each side. The shops sell all kinds of stuff related to home decoration, but also make good gifts. You may purchase several things here, including fake KFC food made out of plastic. There were also several cool clocks, indoor fountains, paintings, woodcarvings, umbrellas, lights, glass and quite a lot of other stuff. This shop was not so busy.
After that, you may walk to “2 – GIFTS”. Just follow the street right down, turn right and walk a little while till you see two busy buildings. From the front it looks quite old and inside it’s quite crowded. There are three floors and on each floor the selection is quite similar: lots of toy shops for little kids, but also several shops selling wedding decorations such as Chinese knots. The fake KFC food that costed 35RMB in the 1st shop, costed 45 RMB here. So perhaps you need to bargain harder in this busy warehouse.
Supermarkets
It might sound a bit strange, but supermarkets in other countries always are lots of fun and reflect the local culture. At the supermarket the price is usually (much) lower than the chopsticks intended as “gifts” and you can still find nice designs as well. If you are pressed for time, it might be a good idea. Better supermarkets often also have a toy area or clothes area. Otherwise, dive into some of the small shops you see everywhere.