A fair variety of Tibetan handicrafts is on sale at the 'Selling Department for Tourist Products' on Beijing Dong Lu. Those are fixed priced. Any visitor to Lhasa notices the decorated tents, canopies and awnings that Tibetans use for numerous outdoor purposes. These are becoming a popular item for travelers to take home. At the Lhasa Tent and Banner Factory skilled artisan can copy and custom-make any design they are shown.
Prices vary greatly according to the complexity of the decoration.
For everyday practical items, there are four main department stores in New Lhasa. There stores and several other medium-sized shops stock comfortable cotton clothing, canteens, mugs, canned food, writing paper, envelopes, soap, towels and toothpaste. Lhasa's major bookshop, Xinhua, on Yuthok Lu, is not impressive but it does carry maps of Lhasa, posters, Tibetan primers, Tibetan-Chinese dictionaries, and Chinese and Tibetan paperback books. A bookshop with Tibetan literature is located just north of the Barkhor, west of the meat market. Top Trekking Trekking, as an important facet of the tourist industry, is slowly developing in Tibet buy still legs far behind Nepal.