Changsha's shopping identity is built around its food and its entertainment industry connections. The markets and streets around Pozi Street and Taiping Street sell Hunanese craft products — embroidery, lacquerware, dried chilli preparations, and the cured meats and preserved vegetables that are the building blocks of the regional cuisine. These make better souvenirs than the generic Chinese tourist merchandise.
The Zhongshan Road and Huangxing Road commercial districts near Wuyi Square concentrate mainstream retail. For genuine craft shopping, the Tongqingji market in the old city has a reasonable selection of antiques, folk art, and collectibles alongside the usual tourist merchandise. Hunan embroidery (Xiang embroidery) is a recognised art form — pieces worked on silk with coloured thread in the characteristic Hunan style are worth looking for; the Xiang Embroidery Museum on the south side of the city sells authenticated pieces.