Two markets

9.12.10 and 9.14.10

Market Number 1: the South Bund Soft Fabric Market.
On Sunday Kevin, our friend Alex and I all wanted to make the trip to the fascinating and mind-boggling cheap Fabric Market. In the late afternoon we took an hour long metro ride to the Southside of town.
When we climbed out of the subway station and saw a city seen that looked like the rest of Shanhai—sky scrapers, rooftop freeways and hostile moped traffic. I followed the guys because the two fashionistas could seemingly smell where the market was. We walked towards a neighborhood that Kevin said reminded him of the fashion district in New York. There we found a three story building that stretched about a block long and we walked in.
Inside we were immediately met by countless stalls overloaded with fake polo shirts, wrist watches, belts, socks and of course fabric. We meandered around the premises for a while and looked at the display models and catalogues that the vendors had on hand. Alex and Kevin were foaming at the mouths and they could not help but stop at any place that looked intriguing.
We went upstairs where people say you can find the best deals. The crowd was mostly North American and European tourists—businessmen and women—getting custom made silk shirts, ties and blazers. Sometimes you could find families of westerners shopping together. One time I saw a woman, who by my best guess was Dutch, go from stall to stall with her oversized suitcase with a duty free shopping bag—she had just gotten off the plane and her first stop was this market. As outrageous as this may sound, it’s an economically wise idea. If you are looking for deals, it’s cheaper to buy a plane ticket from the west, buy a wardrobe and fly back rather than buying all this stuff at Nordstrom or Saks.
I followed my eyes to a stall and looked through a catalogue. They had cut outs from magazines that they could steal the designs from. I found an article from a GQ that Kevin had left on the coffee table from last month!
I met up with Kevin and Alex who were enchanted by one saleswoman’s charming English skills. She said that she wanted to give students a discount on everything so she was gonna sell us Y80 tailored shirts—about $13. I hung out as Alex ordered up a custom plaid long sleeve and Kevin got a Khaki suit. Kevin’s suit, cut to his specifications and his exact figure is going to cost him Y500 and he didn’t even bargain!
The initial purpose of the visit was to peruse what the market had to offer and not actually buy anything. I didn’t want to spend anything quite yet but by the time we left I knew that I would be back.

Market Number 2: the Meat and Vegitable Market
Yesterday I went out with a group of three other people to complete a project for our anthropology course. Our mission was to analyze Chinese people’s spending habits and see how they buy their groceries.
Our first stop was the closest large grocery store. There, we split off into two groups so we could evenly distribute the Chinese speakers with the non-Chinese speakers. I went around with Kevin and smiled as he asked questions in mandarin to female shoppers and store keepers. We ended up finding out that most Chinese people use grocery stores to augment what they have already bought in a market place. They shop close to home and would go out of their way to wind up at a store like this. We got this information from shoppers young, old and middle age. From the shop keeper we learned that their most sold item is Vai Jo or hard rice wine.
After compiling our findings we headed to a market about a block away that contained all other Chinese food necessities. The dimly lit market place had an array of interesting smells and I felt like a curious Labrador sampling air from all the bizarre corners of the football field sized area. We first passed a stall that sold chickens, pigeons and rabbits (this was the place that Kevin got our chicken feast from a few weeks ago). The squawking birds and lethargic bunnies gave off a stench that could make a hog farmer cringe.
I was going around the market place with a Chinese American girl who spoke good Chinese. When we would interview people I would say “ni hao,” get their attention and she would do the rest. I spent the time she gave the interview looking around and picking up a few and words and phrases here and there. Most stalls had a great collection of vegetables—most of them green, sea food, meat, beans, rice and spices. The place was not overly packed but busy all the same. Some people were so down to business that they hated being in an interview. We found out that most women—from all different age groups—come to the market about four times a week and even though they find it expensive they still prefer this market over a grocery store. After we had finished our interviews we snapped pictures with giant eggplants, inked squids, live eels and giant melons. As we were heading out Kevin spoke with the owners of the chicken stall who remembered him. Their three year old daughter gave him a kiss and the owner of the stall shook Kevin’s hand when he learned that Kevin is a student at Fudan.