By Al Wong This is my experience in Beijing, China in the Summer of 2009. If you came to this webpage first, it's better if you start from the beginning of the story. Chinese Government Mandatory Stop: Description There were a number of stops to official government stores during this tour. This is a way for the Chinese government to basically soak the tourist for more money. I understand these are mandatory stops for all tourists and, as an incentive, the tour operators get kickback when purchases are made at the store. They are not listed in your official itinerary when you book a tour to China. And there is no way to skip visiting these stores. I asked. You can usually recognize these stores because they are usually very large, very polished, have huge inventories and high prices. The prices are usually several times higher than what you would find on the street (i.e. in privately owned shops) for the same item. In fact, the prices are outrageously high in these stores. They do this so they can bargain with you. This is supposed to make you feel good so you think you are getting a good price. But even if you get them down to say 50% of the asking price, the discounted price is still much higher than street prices. On the other hand, you can be sure the items they sell at these official government stores are the genuine articles. (i.e. it's real jade, real silk, real pearls, real gold, etc.) So this is not necessarily a bad thing if they have what you want to buy. They used to be called Friendship Stores back in the day. It's the same store. You just have to recognize them and what they are about. Close Window