Chinese Calligraphy for Travelers: Where to Buy the Four Treasures and What You Can Take Home

If you want to bring Chinese calligraphy home, the classic place to shop in Beijing is Liulichang Culture Street (琉璃厂, Liúlichǎng, "glazed tile works"), a street with more than 700 years of history and home to old shops such as Rongbaozhai and Cathay Bookshop (中国书店, Zhōngguó Shūdiàn), where locals and visitors buy books, paintings and the "Four Treasures of the Study". New brushes, ink, paper and inkstones are treated as ordinary personal goods; China's export review rules target cultural relics, meaning antiques and items made in 1949 or earlier plus some listed artworks. If you also want to try writing with a brush, a class is easy to find, but most are platform listings, so check a few things before you pay.

Where to buy the Four Treasures in Beijing

The Four Treasures of the Study (文房四宝, wénfáng sìbǎo) are the basic tools of calligraphy: the brush (笔, bǐ), the ink (墨, mò), the paper (纸, zhǐ), usually absorbent xuan paper (宣纸, xuānzhǐ), and the inkstone (砚, yàn), a flat stone for grinding an ink stick with water.

Liulichang sits in the Hepingmenwai area of Xicheng District. The best-known shop on the street is Rongbaozhai (荣宝斋, Róngbǎozhāi, "Studio of Glorious Treasures"), at No. 19 Liulichang West Street, listed by the Beijing tourism website as open 9:00–18:00 with free entry, so check the hours before you go. Its predecessor shop sold paintings, letter paper and the Four Treasures, and today it mainly sells paintings and calligraphy by known artists, seal carving and woodblock prints, so give it about 30 minutes even if you only browse. For the trip there, the Beijing metro map shows the nearest stations, and our Beijing travel guide covers how to fit the area into a day.

A few buying tips:

• Start with a beginner set. Ask for one medium brush for regular characters, bottled liquid ink and a pad of practice paper.
• Test the brush. A good brush comes back to a sharp point after you wet it and press it.
• Pack inkstones in checked luggage. They are heavy stone and can crack. Put bottled ink in a sealed bag in checked luggage, or keep it to small bottles that meet hand-luggage liquid limits.
• Ask "is this new or old?" Liulichang sells antiques next to new stationery. A new item is simple to take home. An "old" inkstone or painting may fall under the relics rules below.

Quality and prices range widely, so compare a couple of shops and keep the receipt; it also shows the item is new if anyone asks at the airport. Our shopping in China guide covers bargaining and receipts.

Can you take it home? The 1949 line and ordinary stationery

China's general customs rule for luggage is that what you carry in or out must be a reasonable amount for personal use; anything beyond that is handled as goods. A brush set, a few bottles of ink, a stack of xuan paper and one inkstone for yourself or as gifts fit that idea. The customs lists do not name new writing materials as restricted; what they restrict is cultural relics: precious relics may not leave the country at all, and general relics are on the restricted list.

Under the rules for reviewing relics before export, these items need a review before they leave China:

• art, crafts, manuscripts and books made in 1949 or earlier
• some later items linked to major events, famous people or ethnic customs
• works by certain late modern painters, calligraphers and craftspeople that the National Cultural Heritage Administration has listed as restricted from export

The review works like this: before you leave, you file an application with a relics export review office, which gives its decision within 15 working days; approved items get an export mark and an export permit, and customs checks the mark and lets the item go with the permit. The full text is in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's relics export review measures (in Chinese).

In practice: if a shop sells you an antique inkstone, an old ink cake or a painting by a well-known artist who has died, ask before you pay whether it already carries the export mark and permit, and buy only if it does or the shop will arrange the review. Fifteen working days is longer than most trips. Our guide to leaving China covers exit customs at the airport.

Want a class? How to find one and check it

Chinese calligraphy has been on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2009, and calligraphers write in five scripts: seal, official, cursive, running and regular. You can read more on the UNESCO page for Chinese calligraphy.

One class with its terms on an official page is at the luxury end: the Master Calligraphy Experience at the Mandarin Oriental Qianmen hotel in Beijing lasts 2 hours and costs 16,000 yuan per session for 1–4 people plus a 15% service charge, booked at least 3 days ahead through the hotel concierge. That is a private lesson, not a typical price.

Most other classes are small studios and cultural centres that sell short group sessions through booking platforms. Three ways to find one:

• Booking platforms. Search "calligraphy class" plus your city on Klook; check the listing for the length, teaching language, what is included and the current price per person.
• Your hotel concierge. They can often recommend a studio nearby and call in Chinese for you.
• Museums and cultural centres. Some run public education sessions; check their official accounts or websites for current dates.

Before you pay, check: the class is taught in English or with a translator; materials and a finished piece to take home are included; the refund and rescheduling terms are written on the booking page. If you go to a physical studio, Chinese law requires every business to display its business licence in a visible spot at its premises. For the other classic hands-on experience, see our guide to the Chinese tea ceremony; to see old calligraphy carved in stone, the stele museum in our Xi'an travel guide is the place.

In short: shop along Liulichang and browse Rongbaozhai, buy new tools and you can carry them home, ask about the export permit for anything old, and check the licence and refund terms before booking a class.

Last updated: November 2026