Finally re-found our vegetable market

Yah! We finally found it - again - the vegetable market from Lantern Festival night! We knew it was near Laoximen, but still ended up walking around the whole super-block spanning Lao Guangdong to Laoximen Station twice - with the kids announcing loudly that we were indeed, astoundingly, under Mommy’s wise guidance, retracing our steps for the second time that afternoon. Glad that nobody could understand what they were whinging on about in English!

Good thing also that we were planning to get some peanut snacks for Poppy, because it turns out that the nut shop on Renmin is in fact the gateway to Wan You Quan Da Jing Cai Shi Chang (quite the mouthful even by Chinese standards)! This market hall is surprisingly the first and so far only authentic old school Chinese wet market that we have seen in Shanghai. All the fish, meat, real-time butchering action, eggs, handmade noodles even, peanut candies, and of course vegetables - fresher, cheaper and more diversity than you would find at any Carrefour supermarket.

As usual, being a rather memorable team - between my surprisingly comprehensible Chinese accent and the kids’ exotic good looks and bright singsong voices - “our” vegetable lady recognized us immediately and welcomed us to her stand. Interestingly the kids almost seemed to understand the art of “guanxi” rather instinctively - they wouldn’t even let me think about getting vegetables from anyone else - and of course the lady threw in some extras for us when she rang it up at the end. Nice direct exposure to Chinese culture!Read more