Flea Markets Very Different in America

Most of the time I see things in China and I think to myself, I’m in China, they do things differently here. I think for the most part in the scheme of culture shock I have reached cultural acceptance. Some days however I see things that push me right back to the shock phase. A moment like that occurred when we visited a large market.

The beginning of the market

While in Xishuangbana we read about a flea market type thing in Menghai, in my mind I pictured the Meadowlands flea market in New Jersey. That market is filled with vendors selling all sorts of clothes, housewares, and street food. Not quite what we found in Menghai, instead we seemed to be at a huge food market selling fruits, vegetables, live animals, meat, and not a lot of street food or non food goods for that matter. 

Enclosed part of market selling fruits, vegetables, eggs, and live animals.

Now I’m used to seeing live animals for sale, but when I walk into a warehouse full of raw meat in 80 degree (Fahrenheit) weather, I can't help but feel utterly shocked. The smell nearly made me a vegetarian.

The raw meat market

After seeing the meat warehouse we were in the mood to get as far away from the market as fast as possible. We had been expecting lots of food vendors selling street food, not raw meat. In our search for a restaurant we stumbled into a place selling some sort of noodles, noodles seemed really safe, so we figured why not. We went in and sat at a table, we were then led to the refrigerator where we were told in Chinese to pick out what we wanted. 

The Refrigerator

We assumed we were choosing the ingredients to go into the noodles. Turns out they made a dish showcasing (is that the right word? Do I speak English?) each of the ingredients we chose! It was so simple but also some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had.

Our Chefs!

Our first dish, delicious!

More dishes!