Skip to content
Site Tools
Increase font size Decrease font size Default font size default color blue color green color
Home Shopping & Leisure Pearl Wholesalers in Shanghai
Pearl Wholesalers in Shanghai
Shopping & Leisure

Overview:
China Shopping

Pearl's Circles tops the First Asia Jewelry Plaza near Shanghai's Yuyuan or Yu Garden Bazaar area. As you leave the escalator on the third floor, you'll be overwhelmed by the sheer number of pearls and stones in every design you can imagine. The vendors will call out to you and it'll be hard to get comfortable, so walk around, then saddle up to a counter and start looking. Get your bargaining gloves on and buy ready-to-wear, or design your own jewelry and have it made up in a few minutes.
 
Location:
First Asia Jewelry Plaza, 3rd floor, 288 Fuyou Lu, Shanghai, China
 
Opening Hours:
10am to 6pm daily.
 
Avoiding Fakes - the Tooth Test:
Telling the difference between imitation pearls and the real ones is quite simple: the tooth test. When you rub a real pearl across your teeth, the pearl will feel slightly gritty. Do the same with a fake and it's likely to feel smooth and slippery.
If you're still having trouble deciding whether it's real, ask the vendor to scrape the pearl with a knife. Powder will result in scraping a real pearl, a white plastic bead will be revealed from a fake pearl.
 
Bargaining:
Some say offer 10% of what the vendor is asking, some say 25% and work up from there. In my experience, the best thing to do is make some snap decisions and then start the negotiations at the low end.
Decide if you really want it. It's hard to extract a real price so you'll have to bargain to get close.
Decide how much you're willing to pay. How much is it worth to you?
Walk away. Sometimes it works...but be prepared for a tinge of disappointment when it doesn't.
 
What to Buy:
Most of the pearls you'll find in China are freshwater pearls, cultivated in mollusks in lakes and rivers. Their shape can be elongated and their appearance milky translucent. Freshwater pearls are certainly the real value when buying pearls in China, but sea water and South Sea pearls are also good values. In addition to pearls, there's seemingly no end to the semi-precious stones you can add to designs, such as jade and turquoise, as well as inexpensive crystal and plastic beads.
 
Other Pearl Wholesalers in Shanghai:
There are two other wholesale pearl markets in Shanghai that are worth a stop if you're a real pearl-a-holic. The information above applies to these markets as well.
 
Pearl City 
2nd and 3rd floors, 558 Nanjing Dong Lu, Shanghai, China 
Open 10am-10pm daily
 
Hong Qiao New World Pearl Market 
Hong Mei Road on the corner of Hong Qiao Road 
Open 10am-10pm daily

 

 

China Yellow Pages