Beijing's music scene is well known, but its record shops are not, and they are worth seeking out if you care about music. The trade here is split in two: shops selling new vinyl and imported releases to a young domestic audience, and older stalls and dealers whose stock is the Chinese pop, folk, opera and propaganda-era song of the 1960s to the 1990s, which is where the genuinely unusual finds are.
What is on the shelves
New-vinyl shops stock a mix of international rock and pop pressings, Chinese independent bands, jazz and electronic music, plus turntables, cartridges and accessories. Prices for imported records are high by international standards because of duty and shipping, so the value is in the local releases: limited pressings from Beijing and Shanghai labels, reissues of classic Mandarin pop, and soundtracks. Second-hand stock is more random and more interesting - LPs and cassettes of revolutionary opera, film music, folk song compilations from the provinces and the mainstream Mandarin pop that filled the airwaves in the 1980s and 1990s, usually sold by the box.
Where to look
The main concentration is in the streets north and east of the centre, close to the universities and the art districts, where rents allow small shops to survive. Book markets, weekend markets and the second-hand stalls around the art zones turn up records irregularly. Some of the best-known shops are above or behind other businesses, with signs only in Chinese, so a map pin and a translation app help more than an address. Vinyl bars and listening cafes, where you can sit with a drink and a record, have also appeared in the hutong areas.
Practical notes
Most shops open late morning and close in the early evening, and many shut on one weekday. Bring cash or set up a mobile payment app, since small shops may not take cards. Second-hand records should be checked for warping and scratches before you buy, and the sleeve notes are almost always in Chinese. Remember that anything of real age is a cultural object as much as a piece of music, and that export rules for printed material are worth checking before you fill a suitcase.
