Gongbei Underground Market (拱北地下广场), is the unofficial name for the Gongbei Port Shopping Plaza (拱北口岸购物广场), a subterranean shopping mall located next to the Gongbei Port Authority, one of the many border crossings between Macau and China in Zhuhai.
For both Macanese shoppers and Chinese gamblers, it is the Land of Chocolate, but with consumer electronics, Chinese memorabilia, tons of exotic food, illegal bureaus de change, and everything in place to get yourself happily lost instead.
Gongbei Underground was built to take advantage of both the constant traffic of Macanese going to China to buy cheap, as well as of the Chinese going to sooth their gambling needs at Macau’s casinos, forbidden in the mainland, but nowadays, the relevance of this market goes beyond its content or privileged location.
With time and a steady rise in China’s spending habits, GUM grew in size and quality; its parallel and intertwined neighboring markets are growing too, not to mention the multiple shops, businesses, traders, hotels, smugglers depending on this commercial hub.
As I have made many articles about this market, it is time to make some sense of them all, so here is the compilation of everything Gongbei Underground:
- Shopping around: what to find in there.
- Mapping the maze: don’t get lost!
- Gongbei Port Authority: Macao – China border building.
- Crossing the border: obtaining a Chinese visa.
- Border runners: avoiding the limits on trade goods.
- Lotus Road and the lonely heart foreigners.
- An example on counterfeit goods from GUM: a Vacheron Constantin chronograph.
- Making sense on the Chinese copy culture.
- Walking around Gongbei, no comment videos.
- Gongbei Wet Market.
- Gongbei Spices Market.
- Gongbei District street markets.
- Bargaining in China, a how-to guide.
- Get a coffee break and some pastries with it.
- Photo gallery on everything Gongbei.
- Praying for good sales: Shenist and Taoist altars at GUM.
tales of wander 
