Where do you buy souvenirs in Shanghai without getting ripped off?

Shanghai does not win on “characteristic souvenirs”, and locals rarely buy that category. Three kinds of thing are worth the luggage weight: food and tea that travels — boxed pastries, sauces, dried goods and tea labelled with a grade and origin; everyday household goods such as towels, slippers, kitchen tools and vacuum flasks; and stationery and textiles such as pens, notebooks, bedding, cotton cloth and silk scarves. What not to carry: the fridge magnets and keyrings at the airport and attraction gates, cheap but mostly sold in other cities too. Anything sold as “antique” or “jade” is not a souvenir; if you do not know the category, do not buy it.

The tourist-street version and the local version of the same product

The same product is often not the same thing bought on a visitor street and bought locally. Tourist-area pastries are usually a generic recipe from a contract manufacturer, packaging worth more than the contents; tea is often a gift box of unstated grade; what is sold as silk is often blended synthetic fibre, and a “silk” label is not a fibre-content label. What you can check: whether ingredients, grade, origin and the applicable standard are stated clearly; whether the shop has local customers or only tour groups; whether prices are marked and a proper invoice is available. The most reliable test is the channel: the same item from a department-store food hall, supermarket, time-honoured food shop or museum shop is far less likely to go wrong.

Where locals buy each category

For food and tea, locals use the food hall in a department store’s basement and time-honoured food shops, where prices are clear and invoices available; for dried goods and seasonings, a supermarket is enough. Household goods come from the homeware section of a supermarket or hypermarket, stationery from a large bookshop, and bedding and cloth from the concentrated fabric markets and home-textile counters. Museum and gallery shops are worth a trip of their own: their stock usually has a design source. The wholesale and market districts serve local traders: low prices, wide choice, noisy surroundings, often no small-quantity sales. The test is simple: locals ask whether they will use it, tourist shops whether they can sell it to you; a tour coach parked outside is a reason to walk on.

Price, customs, and the two traps: tea and silk

On price: almost everywhere a visitor shops has marked prices; malls, supermarkets, brand boutiques and museum shops do not negotiate. Haggling exists in wholesale markets, individual stalls and second-hand markets, where the opening quote leaves room: ask, compare two or three sellers, do not commit on the spot. On customs, whether what you bought may be carried into your destination country is decided by that country’s customs rules, which differ and change; no figures are quoted here. Check that country’s customs or agriculture department guidance before travelling, especially on meat, eggs, fruit, seeds and unpackaged food; keep the ingredient list and choose factory-sealed packs. The tea trap is grade and origin: “famous tea” and “local specialty” cannot be verified, so buy packaged tea stating grade, origin and production information. The silk trap is fibre content: read the composition label and the applicable standard, not the shop name or the sales pitch. In short: food and tea, household goods, stationery and textiles are worth taking home, from department-store food halls, time-honoured food shops, supermarket chains, wholesale markets and museum shops; buy tea and silk by grade and fibre content, not by shopfront; check your own country’s customs before carrying food across a border.