Site seeing - On a gift trail

www.eZiba.com
Dynamic, extensive and chic, this is a true collector's delight. Headquartered in Washington D.C., this site was born out of a conversation between Amber Chand, a Ugandan of Indian ancestry and her friend, Dick Sabot, a distinguished professor of economics and Internet entrepreneur.

Chand outlined an idea to import painted miniatures from Rajasthan, India, and Sabot proposed a solution that involved not just Rajasthani miniatures but the entire world of fine handcrafted goods. Thus evolved a company which unites commerce, technology, art and humanity.

eZiba.com is today a leading online retailer of handcrafted products from around the world. Rated as 'Best of the Web' by Forbes, 'One of the best shopping sites on the Web' by Time and the list of accolades goes on from National Geographic Traveler, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue to name a few.

The site offers an immense range, there's art, artifacts, fashion, jewellery, furniture, home furnishings, bed, bath, garden, eZibakids, pastimes, holidays, celebrations. And you can select products by world regions – North America, Central and South America, North Africaand Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and Pacific, Central and South Asia, Europe.

And the range can be anything from $10 to $6,500, perhaps for a Turkish purse, Murano glass beads, Indian antiques, Kyrgyzstan dolls, Chinese rose chair, Turkish Baluchi carpets... If you really want to give a memorable gift, then I vouch for presenting a gift certificate of eZiba that starts with $25 and goes on, the only stipulation being that the receiver has an e-mail address.

www.china-shops.com

Simple and easy to navigate, www.china-shops.com is your number one online Chinese cultural store. Based in Shenzhen, China, with offices in the U.S. and Hong Kong, it offers a flavour of Oriental magic that is delightful.

There's handicrafts (clay craft, paper craft), jewellery (pearl, jade, gem stones), music (CDs, VCDs of classic Chinese music, famous Cantonese music), silk and textile (bags made by the Tong tribe), Chinese tea, of course, (tea and tea pots), health and spirit (Fengshui jade tree, health products), books (Analects of Confucius, Tales from ancient China), visual art (calligraphy, Chinese batik), Collectibles (Qing coins, snuff bottle)... gift vouchers at this site start at $10. I would say much more value than anything I could pick up from around the neighbourhood.

www.gifts24.com

Detailed but easy to use, this site offers over 27,000 items that you can select by occasion, interest, personality, occupation, lifestyle, sex or age. There are all types of gifts to suit any occasion, be it birthday (gifts, zodiac, birthstones), wedding (couple gifts, bridal shower), anniversary (traditional, modern, for him, her), graduation (high school, college, speciality), on the move (housewarming, bon voyage, new office), congratulations (promotion, retirement, thank you) and more. In the Price No Bar category there was a beautiful African mask collection for under $250 that was lovely among the many attractive offers.

www.korean-arts.com

On the trail of unusual gifts, www.korean-arts.com
offers a fine selection of Korean celadon pottery, lacquered music boxes, dolls andfigurines, screens and masks, pendants and more.

The term 'celadon' (means green) has become widely accepted as the Western term for Korean pottery, called Cheong-ja in Korean, due to its distinctive jade-green colour. The Korean names for jade green pottery is Cheong-Ja, the brown and light brown pottery is called Bun-Cheong and white celadon or Baek-Ja literally means white porcelain and is the name for the white pottery made by Korean artisans.

The New Stuff lists celadon pendants, jars, and vases, lacquered boxes, coasters, and trays, tiger wall fan, Jung mask, Hahoe masks (easy to understand why it's sold out) and the list goes on.