Dirt Markets and Acrobats

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September 21st 2008

Published: January 21st 2009

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wanderlustwest

Panjiayuan Market

By our 3rd day in Beijing we were already exhausted. Walking the grounds of the Forbidden City had tired us out so we opted for a more leisurely day- one fo the benefits of independent travel. After our daily stop for breakfast at Alley Cafe, we decided to take a trip across town to the Panjiayuan Market aka the Dirt Market.

Panjiayuan Market is known for antiques as opposed to the overly touristy souvenirs (although there are still plenty of Mao watches to be found). We mixed in with mostly locals and the odd Westerner as we browsed the stalls.
The market is broken into sections: artists, books, textiles, and jewellery.
Shane and I picked up a beautiful scroll for our house for more than half the price of what they were selling for on the main tourist drag.

We enjoyed our time flipping through old books and vintage postcards, and visiting the antique furniture stores. Getting our first taste of shopping, we decided to continue on over to the Silk Market after a short cab ride.

Shane and I have been to many markets and bazaars around the world: Istanbul, Cairo, Kusadasi, Hong Kong, Seoul, and around

My new friend

This cat was my friend for the week in Beijing at the Alley Cafe

Greece and Morocco. Never have we encountered such an overwhelming and clastrophobic place. Sure in Hong Kong, I got a bit too overwhelmed on my own, fighting my way through Kowloon, but at least that was outdoors. This is people and things just crammed into an indoors space, with many sellers going as far as to touch you and physically drag you into a stall, sometimes blocking the exit until you could settle ona deal with them.

We were totally unprepared for this, and lasted less than 15 minutes- just enough time to bargain for a purse and a leather belt- and decided we were better off having a nice lunch outdoors on a patio.

Just a short walk from the Silk market was the Beijing Friendship Store which proved to be a much more open and hassle-free place. Clearly geared to the coach tours as a stop off point, we were able to look around at the goods and find prices on things we didn't feel like bartering for, and browse the leftover Olympic apparel.

After taking the subway to the hotel, it started raining. More like a torrential downpour that lasted the rest of teh

Panjiayuan Market

Book sellers at the antique dirt market

night. We decided to head across the city to the Chaoyang Acrobats. The tickets were inexpensive and we found ourselves int he "VIP" section in th esecond row. A great performance with lots of stunts including multiple acrobats simultaeneously riding a bicycle and other flips and jumps.

Back outside were were faced with the reality of the weather- we were going to get soaked. Unable to find an umbrealla for sale before we left, we were left to fight with hundreds of people for a cab since we were too far to walk to the nearest subway station. Putting our Toronto cab grabbed skills to the test, we dashed ahead of some people with umbrellas and decided that we needed to use force. We shadowed a cab and hopped into it before the people exiting ciould let go of the door. Once we were in the cab, we ran up against the first cabbie who refused to take us to the hotel. A far trip across the city for the standard evening fee didn't suit the driver. Refusing to get out after he said he had no idea where the hotel was, and refused to call for directions, we

Panjiayuan Market

Hiding in the book stall

simply pointed at Jingshan Park on the map until he agreed to take us to the hotel. As we approached teh hotel whcih was off of Jingshan Park, we directed him to stop in front of the hotel which meant we didn't have to walk the few blocks in the rain.

Already soaked, we deicided there was nothing better to do than hit up a restaurant reccommended to us by some fellow Canadaian travellers we had met earlier in the day at breakfast. Their reccommendation was spot on: we had some of the most delicious sweet and sour pork, green vegetables, and fried rice. All the food was fantastic- so much so that we made it back for lunch and dinner more than a few times in the coming week.

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