Instruments in Beijing

July 26, 2009 1:49 PM

Where in Beijing can I buy music instruments?

I'm going to Beijing next week for a couple weeks and want to see what interesting instruments I can find there. What are some of the better/more interesting instrument stores around there? I'd also like to see if I can buy some more "normal" instruments such as drum machines or synthesizers. Is it a good idea to buy those there? Where can I find them there?

posted by god particle to shopping (2 answers total)

There are markets around town, but most "normal" instruments will be knock offs and not really worth your time.

If you are interested in local instruments like the GuJin and ErHu try dirt market, as it will probably the most accessible for a tourist but still have stuff you might be interested in.
posted by BobbyDigital at 5:55 PM on July 26, 2009

There's a number of electric guitar specialist shops just round the corner from me on Gulou Dong Dajie (鼓楼东大街 - that runs east from the Drum Tower). Not a muso myself but recently took a visiting friend of a friend there on a similar mission to your and they were very happy with their purchases. Not far further along are a couple of larger more conventional shops that sell a range of instrument including trad Chinese fiddles, zheng and so on.
Ask Baidu (local Ask Yahoo-alike so take that for what it's worth) further suggests number 107 Xinjiekou (新街口) for folk instruments and second-hand, which is not too far (couple of blocks West) from the above.
posted by Abiezer at 2:58 AM on July 27, 2009