Neiliansheng Cloth Shoes

Neiliansheng means 'rising within the court' - a fitting name for the shop that made cloth shoes for the Qing imperial family and later for Mao Zedong. Its Dashilan store is a working museum: craftsmen stitching velvet boots at the back, walls of embroidered slippers, and a fitting room where staff measure your feet the old way.

A pair costs a few hundred yuan and lasts for years, and the embroidered slippers make magnificent gifts. This is heritage shopping at its most tactile - you watch the shoes being made, then wear them out of the store.