Kaiyuan Mall: the department store at the Bell Tower

Kaiyuan Shopping Mall (开元商城) is the big stone-clad department store on the southeast corner of the [Bell Tower](/en/places/bell-tower) roundabout, and for three decades it has been where Xi'an people came downtown to shop. Its first phase opened in June 1996 and the full building was completed in 2001. Inside it is a classic Chinese department store rather than a modern mall: cosmetics and watches on the ground floor, menswear and womenswear stacked above, sportswear and kids' goods higher up, and a supermarket and local-products hall in the basement. For a visitor it is less a destination than a useful, air-conditioned stop between the Bell Tower, the [Muslim Quarter](/en/places/muslim-quarter) and [Luomashi](/en/places/luomashi-pedestrian-street): clean toilets, a supermarket for snacks and Shaanxi specialties, and fixed prices with no haggling. Pay with Alipay or WeChat Pay; bigger counters take foreign cards.