As of this past Monday we had been in Huayuan for exactly. We have gotten our jiggity on in the town square, climbed a cemetary hill and burnt our mouths with spicy food but we had yet to visit the town market. The reason is pathetically simple. At first we didn’t know that the town had one and then later we couldn’t find it but we were determined to experience that part of the Chinese culture.
Our good friend from the land of the Dutch who taught at this school before, Shari Nijman, helped us out in our search by making an amazingly well made map. From that we found out that there was not just one market, but two albeit one was substancially smaller than the other.
I am going to focus this entry on the bigger market because the other one truly is a lot smaller and not a lot was there worth mentioning. Come to find out we had actually been to the other market before. Well, kind of. We had actually been above it where some shops are.
The market is a bit hidden off the street but you go down a big set of stairs, you arrive. Once you make it to the bottom, you first notice the smell. But it smells like China. Anyway, the market area is HUGE. Like massive. Loads of fresh veggies and meat. Going there you will find things that you have seen before in your life. Things you can see through. :S
Now don’t get me wrong, it is a really neat place. For experience sake et al but I would never buy anything there. Sanitation is sub par, dogs are going in between the isles and nothing is clean. Not to mention the blood on the floor when you go through the meat area. That being said, I know that most of the food that I have eaten here has come from these types of markets so as long as it tastes decent going down, that is fine by me.
Once you go through the food area of the market you go back to the “farm.” I say farm because there are lot of animals there. This is where people buy different animals for the meat they consume. Everything from birds to dogs to turtles where there. Most surprising? We found a mole and two porkipines. It was really sad to see and I just wanted to buy them all just to set them free. I have a bit more sympathy for vegitarians. 🙂
I have posted a video of it below. PLEASE note that is kind of graphic and if you are squimish, I would recommend not looking. But if you are wanting to see a bit of the Chinese culture, have at it.
