Slow China — Go beyond the postcard

Gifts that travel well: pastries, tea and sauces, dairy and cooked meats, then museum shops and crafts.

Pastries and snacks

Daoxiangcun (Sanhe): Look for the 三禾 mark. The ox-tongue pastry, the jujube-flower pastry and the hawthorn pot-cover cake are the classics. The No. 0 shop on Dongsi North Street bakes on site — buy there, and note that the gift boxes are genuinely presentable.
Chabingzhai: The longest queue on Yonghegong Street. The pistachio milk cake and the jasmine-maofeng cheese cake are fine-textured and only faintly sweet, which makes them the right gift for someone younger.
Meitancun: Chinese pastry taken in a new direction. The plain cheese pastry and the matcha one have a soft, short crust, a strong dairy note and the sweetness held back.
Yili: Beijing's collective childhood: the sesame-paste wafer, the shredded-coconut biscuit and the old-style vitamin bread. Cheap, and better suited to an older relative or a child than anything expensive.

Wuyutai and Zhang Yiyuan: Two century-old houses selling jasmine tea, from everyday drinking to gift-box grades. The Wuyutai Qianmen branch also bakes tea biscuits on site — those need a numbered ticket from the queue.
Tongrisheng Grain Shop: Buy the 二八 paste — eight parts peanut to two parts sesame — ground on the spot. It is what noodles and hotpot dipping are built on. The black sesame paste sells well too.
Liubiju: A pickle shop that goes back to the Ming. The sesame shreds, the eight-treasure mixed pickle and the pickled cucumber are crisp and salty in the way that makes plain rice disappear. Vacuum packs make them practical to carry.

Ziguangyuan: The yogurt with a skin is the thing to buy: lift the lid and there is a thick layer of cream on top, smooth almost like cheese. Plain and jasmine are both good. The shelf life is short — eat it soon.
Tianfuhao: The braised elbow and braised beef that carry the intangible-heritage label. Rich without greasiness, individually vacuum-packed so they keep, and respectable enough to give an elder.
Yueshengzhai: A century-old halal house. The light-spiced braised beef and the five-spice braised lamb are firm-textured — the answer when the person you are buying for eats halal.

Palace Museum, NMC and Temple of Heaven shops: The Palace Museum's phoenix-crown fridge magnet, the National Museum's artefact magnets, the Temple of Heaven's Hall of Prayer model. Well made, culturally specific rather than generically decorative, and worth keeping as much as giving.
Cloisonné: A national-level intangible craft. Small cloisonné ornaments, incense trays or jewellery are the practical way to buy it: finely made and unmistakably of this city rather than any other.
Yonghegong bracelets: The ash-glaze glass bracelets are attractive and carry a meaning. Choose the style on Guozijie first, then take it to Yonghegong to be blessed: Guozijie has more choice and you are not queueing at the temple just to browse.

Qianmen Street and Dashilan: Wuyutai's Qianmen branch, Zhang Yiyuan, Liubiju, Tongrentang and Daoxiangcun all sit within one stretch. It is crowded and good for browsing as you buy — go early for the limited lines.
Yonghegong and Beixinqiao: Start from exit F at Yonghegong on line 5. Chabingzhai, Meitancun, Honghua Bakery, Yili and Tongrisheng follow one after another along an easy line — you can eat as you go.

Check the 三禾 mark: Daoxiangcun is the one purchase here with a well-known counterfeit problem. Without the 三禾 mark on the packaging it is not the Beijing Daoxiangcun, whatever the shop sign says.
Count the days: Pastries keep roughly seven to twenty days. Dairy is far shorter. Buy both in the last day or two before you fly, not on the first day of the trip.
Liquids and gels go in the hold: Yogurt, sesame paste and douzhi cannot go in cabin baggage — they have to be checked. The way around it is to buy a foil-packed yogurt airside, after security, and carry that on.
Buy the museum gift in the museum: Popular items such as the phoenix-crown magnet sell out around holidays — check the official channels early. Cheap versions on street stalls are resold online copies, not museum stock; buy in the official shops.