Yuyuan old street has successfully preserved its architecture in distinctly Chinese style while constantly pulled in endless streams of tourists to visit. Its vast space and countless number of stores prove irresistible for souvenirs-hunting shopaholics, given its wide variety of fanciful memento to possibly acquire. This is also one of the most vibrant old streets where shopping mingles with eating, thereby creating the perfect experience to unwind. Bargaining skills are highly sought after if one desires to purchase gifts at the most reasonable price. It is not uncommon for most shop keepers to sell at extravagant rate, but only to reduce it to more than 50%. Non-Chinese speaking visitors might be at a disadvantage as most sellers are Chinese and probably have little to no command of English language. My personal experience at a liuli shop where I bought two liuli glass mini Buddha (pink and blue) confirmed that without haggle, I would be literally “cheated”. They finally offered me discount of up to 80%, to my disbelief. I was clearly elated with both the deserved price and the desired possession. This probably revealed how desperate shop keepers are to quickly sell off their products when there is a customer who truly wants it. As a vegetarian, I was relief that Yuyuan has a mouth-watering and famous restaurant called Songyue Lou that dedicates to only Chinese vegetarian cuisine. This saves us from hunger in the midst of our shopping mission. All in all, it is highly recommended to visit Yuyuan old street even with a hectic travel schedule as it could prove a big miss if one skips it entirely. Half a day might be too rush to cover every corner of the street, and beware that it is easy to get lost in these intertwined walkways. The easiest way to travel here is to alight at Yuyuan Garden train station and to walk for around 10-15 minutes to reach the main street.

We visited here in August 2019 on a tour. Although we were only here for a couple of hours, it was no where near enough time to get through all the shops and food stalls and sights. August is a very busy time and there were many many people everywhere. The architecture was wonderful, and so much to see. Definitely worth the visit. Leave yourself enough time.