 Morning Markets in Shanghai |
Page 2 of 7 |
| Morning Markets in Shanghai |
Page 2 of 7 |
Xiang Yang Road Morning Market
| Xiang Yang Road Market is typical of the morning
"free markets" in Shanghai. I found nothing comparable in the city center of
Beijing. Vendors here are mostly individual farmers, who set up shop on this downtown
street, a few blocks from the Garden Hotel, in Shanghai's former French Concession. The market is one block long and it's a bustle of activity from 5:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. Early shoppers are mostly retired ladies and a few retired men, looking for the freshest and cheapest produce for their lunch and dinner. Shopping and cooking are elaborate and time-consuming rituals in the Chinese culture and even working people shop on a daily basis to get the freshest produce, though many now have refrigerators. In the hot summer months, it's not unusual to find older men and older ladies doing early morning shopping in their P.J.'s! Most of the truck farmers who supply this market are within one hour's biking distance from the city, though some are as close as 10 minutes away. A few come from Pudong where their farms are small, ranging in size from 3-8 mu (½ - 1 acre). |
 Farmer uses a traditional counterbalance scale. |
