Chinese Flea Market

 

A few weeks ago Zachary and I joined an impromptu trip to the flea market. It was the last day for 3 weeks that it would be open, so we jumped on board, excited for a chance to  buy things photograph things.  Let me just tell you that if you add "Chinese" to anything, it's a picture worthy moment. (Not racist, it's just Chinese malls, food shops, beaches, events, etc. are so different from our malls, food shops, events, etc. Therefore, picture worthy and interesting. :) )  So, a Chinese Flea Market sounded like a good time to take out the camera. (Or borrow the camera of a friend, because yours is at home, time. Same diff.)

Ella and I on the way to the flea market! Ella was excited. Cheap toys and a date with her dad?! Heck yes!

Ella caught the memo about bring a camera, so she was sure to bring her trusty pink Vtech.

Sweet Potatoes. LOVE this street food. You can guarantee where there is street food for sale, this healthy, non-rat meat, snack will be there! It's a safe food as far as street food goes. They say to take off the skin, but I eat it anyways. I can't help it. It's just so delicious and full of vitamins!

Another delicious and healthy street food often available in China-melon on a stick! Loooove it.

A not so safe street food, dead meat carcasses! Don't those hanging carcasses just call you to come on over and buy some meat? I mean I don't know how we ever resist! As a side note that doesn't fit in to the crass, Chinese BBQ meat is actually delicious. It's hot off the grill and seasoned deliciously! And the meat carcasses hanging are actually to show customers that they in fact sale the meat they advertise, because I mean look, there's the carcass we cut it off of. As you can see this grill is ran by Chinese Muslims. This is also a good sign that the meat is clean because they must cut and treat the meat with Halal standards.

At the entrance to the market, the kids toys were already out. Ella was really wanting these cheap robotic dog toys!

Tons of Chinese style jewelry, coins and Buddhist prayer beads for sale.

There were tons of blankets laid out of books. Too bad we can't read Chinese! There was bound to be a good book in there somewhere.

You can buy anything at the market, as any good Flea market ensures. This blanket hosted all that Hepatitis & Tetanus  infested goodness. Need an old razor blade, scissors, pocket knife, food peeler, used knife? This is the place for you!

The flea market is set up in a dried riverbed and extends over a mile long. It starts with used cars, shoes & clothes, tools, & house goods, and moves into plants, foods, spices, kitchen supplies and pets. You can find almost anything there. No joke, I even saw multiple guys selling false teeth and veneers, with all their soaking tools, and teeth laid out on display. They wouldn't let me take a picture though. Can we say shady?!

This seriously reminded me of a picture I took 6 months after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in a neighborhood that bordered one of the breached levies. From afar the flea market really did resemble a slum or some aftermath of a catastrophe.

There were tons of clothes and shoes! I'm not gonna lie I tried on some of the shoes! There was one guy who had 4 to 5 pairs of super cute boots for winter that were my size! I rarely find my size in China. In another life, where God had blessed me with non fat muscular calves, I would have must definitely walked away with 4 very old & worn new pairs of boots for next to nothing. And it would have been awesome. But alas, me and my big calves had to walk away.

Jackets, coats, shirts, jeans! Oh My!

Just one of those perks of being Chinese and living in China, it's totally normal, and comfortable to take a nap anywhere. Ain't nobody care!

This lady was the sweetest and had the biggest smile. She kept miming things to me in Chinese. This is pretty rare, the miming, because so few Chinese people use or know how to use hand motions. We had a good laugh together.

You would think that we were in a toxic waste, hazard zone by this picture (okay, let's be real, by a lot of these pictures) but no, just another normal site in China, face masks, but not the super cool kind like a I fashion. If someone has a slight cough, it's not unusual to see them wearing a face mask. We also saw this in Korea. Or maybe we were in a toxic waste zone, perusing all the unwanted, probably dug up from the trash dong-xi of China. Maybe we should have taken note from this lady and brought out the head scarves, masks and gloves before taking the trip to the flea market.

Super high quality ;) flats with faces on them for sale. I had to really fight with myself to just walk away. ;)

There were several outdoor eating tents. One had this delicious looking and I'm sure highly flavorful goodness floating in a HUGE pot. I asked what it was but had no idea what she said. Tons of people were ordering it so apparently it must have been good. 

The famous infamous hot dogs on a stick. Just upon the smell of one of these dogs I gag. They're bad. Chara, naturally, LOVES them. Super smelly-score!

Fresh sugar cane for sale. 

$1.50 sneakers for sale.

Sweaters in all shapes and sizes.

These people were getting fancy with tables, instead of blankets, to display their stuff on. I imagine these are people with actual shops.

Baby clothes.

I can't wait for winter for when we start seeing all the little babies wrapped up in these super padded outfits! It's adorable. Like human size marshmallows.

Spices & Seasonings

 

"Fresh" meat for sale. No way in heck I would ever buy meat from the flea market. Do you see all the dirty buckets?! And there were tons of flies. It was bad. Okay. Ya. Let's move on.

Ah. That's better. Bags of nuts, in their shell. Clean and safe.

Mr. Mosby enjoying the flea market.

Wouldn't you love to join us on our next trip to the flea market?! ;)