Sunday, February 1, 2009

Panjiayuan Market Beijing


Panjiayuan Market, Beijing ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Panjiayuan Market (潘家园旧货市场 Panjiayuan Jiuhuo Shichang) in Beijing is one of the most interesting markets in China. I try and pay a visit to Panjiayuan every time I come to Beijing, and every visit is different from the previous, with new bargains to be had and new trends to be caught. Much of the souverirs that you find in other tourist shops in Beijing are sourced here by shopsellers, at much lower prices and in a greater selection. Panjiayuan has seen huge development in recent years, but many years ago it started as a cheap market with all the goods laid out on the ground. Locals knew it as Dirt Market or Ghost Market (because of its early morning hours). Today Panjiayuan is an established market area with covered walkways and numerous enclosed shops. The prices are still much cheaper than regular stores but the end price is up to your skills as a bargainer. You can find just about anything here to tickle your fantasy of recreating a little bit of olde China back home: "antique" furniture (newly produced in old style), lanterns, ceramics, sculptures and buddha heads (an entire parking lot full of them), embroidery, boxes, knick-knacks, paintings, trinkets and doo-dads, you want it, they've got it. A recent trend are fake paintings of famous Chinese painters. The originals sell for millions, at Panjiayuan you can get them for a few hundred. Name your artist or just bring a picture of the painting you want to grace your living room wall and they will produce it for you. You must, of course, leave your morals and intellectual copyright scruples aside.

Panjiayuan is open all days of the week, but it is only on weekends that all the stalls are open and all the small sellers that lay out their goods on the ground are present. This is the time to visit. Come as early as possible, the first weekend sellers arrive at 4.30 am! Weekdays: 8.30 am - 6 pm. Caveat emptor: 99% percent of the so-called antiques at Panjiayuan are fakes, set your initial offer price with that in mind.

Address: Southeast corner of the Third Ring Road, just east of Longtan Park (潘家园桥西).


©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Some cats are lucky, others not


Sail cat ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Chinadaily.com.cn 090124 #3


Lucky cat falls 15 stories and survives

A lucky cat fell off his master's 15th-floor balcony in Qingdao, Shandong province, and survived unscathed.

Wang, the cat's owner, found the cat wandering the streets several months earlier and took it home. She kept it on the balcony of her apartment.

One night, she heard a noise and realized the cat had fallen. Wang found the little cat trembling on the ground but it was not injured.

The cat's developed a bigger appetite ever since the fall.

Mutts and mongrels


Blue Roof Art Colony, Chengdu ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Through the kitchen window


Natural History Museum, Pitt Rivers, Oxford, England ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Through the kitchen window I see a butterfly flutter by,
a black one with long tails.
He is attracted to our pomegranate tree,
and I want him to stay.
But he doesn’t and goes away.

080831

Chinadaily.com.cn 090124 #2

Wanted: boyfriend for 2 days, acting skills a plus

A female student at Peking University didn't want to go home alone for the Spring Festival so she's seeking a man to pretend to be her boyfriend.

She is offering to pay up to 10,000 yuan ($1,460) a day to the person who accepts the role.

She wrote that her family won't let her go home for the holiday "unless I bring home a boyfriend with me."

The ad triggered debate on the Internet with some saying they understood her situation while some psychologists said it could cause trouble for her and possibly put her in danger if dishonest men answered her ad.

# 5 Today's picture 090201


©Ingrid Booz Morejohn