Hi, I'm also inquiring the same thing. I want to crochet a small blanket for the couch, for watching movies, instead of dragging my big comforter off the bed.

I see Guomao on the map, but it's very far from me (I'm in Haidian). About the two other places mentioned here so far - could you please be more specific where they are? (xidan, dengshikuo) I'm new to beijing, so if you could say N,S,E,W, or which ring roads they're near, or something like that, that'd be very helpful. Thanks.

I found a place. Let me look at the name. It's called 毛纺城批发市场. It's just north of an old abandoned textile factory in a place called 清河 northwest of Beijing. It's almost directly north of me here in the university district; I'd guess it's outside of the 5th ring but I'm not sure the exact address. I was given the name of the factory, found it abandoned, and passersby told me of the new market a short walk away. It's an indoor market of 4 or 5 stories with a McDonald's in the middle.

The first floor has mostly fabric and one yarn store; as you go up floors there seems to be a higher proportion of yarn stores. I only got to the 3rd floor before I was exhausted, and had all the yarn I needed. Unfortunately there's not so much variety, and I didn't see a single place with a decent selection of needles or other equipment.

Here's a chinese website that seems to have directions:
http://www.bjall.com/asp/detail.asp?id=61108

PS: For those of you in the university district, there's a small local yarn shop on XueYuan road a bit north of Qinghua E. Road, past the agricultural bank on your right, which has more needles than all the vendors in the abovementioned market combined. (Still a poor selection though).

I found two good yarn stalls in the wholesale market near Chegongzhuang subway station. Exit C, walk West on Chegongzhuang Dajie until you get to the pedestrian bridge, cross the bridge, go into the market (a three story building), the yarn stalls are on the bottom floor to the left of the entrance. They have the usual metal circulars, double pointed needles, huge wooden straight needles, etc, but what I really liked is that they have nice worsted weight wool in a variety of colors for 40 kuai per jin instead of fifty something like I've seen other places.

PS: want to come to a knitting group? we're meeting Sunday at Sculpting in Time Wudaokou 3pm. Email knittingbeijing@gmail.com.