Amylin's Pearls, Shanghai

Loved Amy's Pearls. Great selection of pearls. Great prices. Prices and quality of pearls range from affordable to very expensive. Something for every budget. Very friendly and helpful staff. Will custom make jewelry while you wait.

I was told about Amy's Pearls by a friend, who has another friend who travels to China on a regular basis. I was on a package tour, but had some free time in Beijing. When I asked about Amy's, our local guide did everything she could to dissuade us from going: "very unsafe neighborhood", "place not good". Not believing that my friend would recommend a bad thing, we asked at the desk of the hotel we were at. The concierge told us it was a 10 minute taxi ride and was in the Pearl Market. We went; got fantastic bargains. Later, when our guide took us to the tour's pearl market, I understood why she did not want us to go to Amy's Pearls. Amy's prices were a third of what the tour stop wanted for the same thing. It is true that they don't bargain as much as some establishments, but their prices are so good that it is not as necessary. I understand that there is an Amy's in Shanghai, but we were quite pleased with our stop in Beijing.

Shopped the Shanghai store near the Clothing and gift market. The pearls were better quality than I had seen elsewhere and that was reflected in the price. After negotiating the pearl string purchase I was surprised to learn the clasp was extra! Back to the negotiating table to get them to include the clasp. Also Buy the length of pearls that is on the strand. We asked for 18 in. length so they took pearls off until it hit the length we wanted. That was after negotiating the price for the whole strand. Oops! that was my bad. On the whole this was a better experience than buying in a market stall or other jewlery mart and they accept charge cards and package your purchase attractvely.