A Friendship store was a store in China which sold exclusively to tourists, foreigners, and goverment officials.

The stores sold western, imported items, such as peanut butter and Hershey bars, as well as Chinese art and crafts. The prices were considerably higher than market prices in the country of origin, but as the stores operated as a monopoly for imported items, buyers had no other choice. Items for sale included uncensored copies of Western literature such as the New York Times, and hence guards prevented anyone of Chinese appearance from entering. Often crowds of people would look in the door to see what was for sale. In economics, a monopoly (from the Greek monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a kind of product or service. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

History

The stores were state-owned and were started in major cities as a sign of frienship when China first opened to the outside world, in the late 1970s. A few stores remain open, esspecially in Beijing and Shanghai, as a relic of the past. Jump to: navigation, search The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ...   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Jump to: navigation, search Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; pinyin: ; Shanghainese IPA: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta, is Chinas largest city. ...

Modern friendship stores

The Beijing store has a Starbucks, Baskin-Robbins, Delifrance,Pizza Hut, and a bookshop which stocks a wide range of English-language magazines and newspapers.(still not available to the public)   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

There are two stores in Shanghai, one in the middle of the city, and the other in a more western part. Jump to: navigation, search Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; pinyin: ; Shanghainese IPA: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta, is Chinas largest city. ...

See also

Politics of the People's Republic of China State power within the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is divided among three bodies: the Party, the State, and the Army. ...

External Links

• nytimes travel
• frommers Sjanghai
• frommers Beijing

References

• viewswire for when China began to open up to the outside world.