The city of Markham provides lots of attractions to tourists and visitors, like for example Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery, Heintzman House, Markham Heritage Estates, Reesor Farm Market, Thornhill Village, Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Main Street Unionville, Main Street Markham, First Markham Place and Market Village, Forsythe Farm, and Milne Dam Conservation Park. Main Street Unionville provides more than seventy stores and fashion boutiques, fine dining restaurants, heritage festivals, art galleries and outdoor summer concerts. Main Street Markham provides heritage and cultural festivals, restaurants, pubs, and farmers' market to local and tourists alike. First Markham Place and Market Village is located at the corner of Kennedy Road and Steeles Avenue, and it has two shopping complexes: Market Village in Markham and the Pacific Mall. Forsythe Farm shows what it is really like to live amidst a country home setting.
There are hundreds of malls within the city of Markham, and among the most popular ones are Market Village, Pacific Mall, and Markville Shopping Centre. There are likewise many Asian-oriented shopping centres in the region due to the large number of Asians within the area, mostly Chinese Canadian. The First Markham Place has a lot of shops and restaurants that cater to everybody, and the Pacific Mall is known among the Chinese, since it is a Chinese mall situated on Kennedy Road and Steeles Avenue East. Apart from this, there is also the Market Village Mall and Splendid China Tower, which is considered to be the second biggest shopping area within North America. It is preceded by the Golden Village in the city of Richmond, British Columbia. For people who like to shop at stores that are smaller, they could go to Thornhill Square, The Shops on Steeles and 404, Metro Square, New Kennedy Square and Peachtree Centre.
The city of Markham was once known to be more industrially-active than Toronto during the 19th century, and its independent community created breweries and distilleries in addition to creating products for worldwide exports. Nowadays, it is known for the huge number of major companies which are situated in the town. Companies like Genesis Microchip, Apple Inc., Honeywell, Sun Microsystems, Lucent, Toshiba, IBM and Motorola are just among the corporations which have made Markham City their permanent base for their businesses.