Among thousands of sites particularly interesting to foreigners that
Beijing has to offer, one definitely deserves attention and is mainly popular
among single day or “weekend tourists”, when at the same time many expats permanently
residing here are not even aware of its existence. The place I want to briefly
introduce in today’s post is the Panjiayuan Antique Market located in the
vicinity of Beijing Subway Line 10’s Panjiayuan station.
According to some of the banners proudly stretched at the site it is
supposedly the biggest antique market in the whole of China. From rather humble
and spontaneous beginnings in the 80’s the place has grown to impressive size
and presently houses about 10 thousand sellers of various antiquities. All in
all, Panjiayuan is also reminiscent of the exceptionally troubled history of
China, where after many an ideological battle has been fought, nowadays statues
of Buddha and Confucius literally side with the ones representing Chairman Mao.
Judging from the expressions artfully carved on the faces of the aforementioned
statues, they seem not to hold any hard feelings against each other. In fact,
the mysterious smile hiding at the corners of their mouths indicates their absolute
ignorance of the utterly earthly and therefore petty affairs of the past. Not
less surprisingly, at some of the market’s countless stalls, Chinese version of
the Bible can be seen lying peacefully in the vicinity of the Red Book, both
preaching their own truths and both still meeting with considerable appeal and
reverence.
Impressive as the marketplace is, don’t get yourself fooled, for apart
from some telephones, gramophones, statuettes of Mao, and books, all seemingly
belonging to the bygone ages you are not likely to find many ancient things
here. Most of the so called “antiques” sold are, so to speak, “factory” new and
for the most part, local peddlers don’t even try to pretend that it’s otherwise.
Even with this in mind, the place is still extraordinary and showcases an
exceptional variety of goods resembling almost a mythical richness of Chinese
material culture. To shed some light on it, try to imagine 50 stalls situated next
to each other, selling exactly the same product, while none of them faces
difficulty finding customers!!! That’s precisely how it works with majority of
the “antiques” being sold at Panjiayuan.
Examples of some interesting things to buy and see include:
traditional Chinese calligraphy and paintings (they are by no means old, but no
less interesting because of that), jewelry, pottery, old food coupons and tickets,
incense sticks, gramophones, statues and statuettes of Mao, Buddha and various characters
related to rich Chinese mythology, ancient style furniture and lamps, and
anything else that you may need if you want to give your place a slightly more
oriental touch.
Apart from visiting the main hall it’s really worth to devote some of
your time to the task of discovering numerous back alleys, as rather hidden
from the spotlight there also exists some old school outdoors place full of
makeshift stalls offering staunchly communist propaganda posters and books, where
enjoying the sounds of the accordion played by a man who quite likely
experienced the times of Chairman Mao himself, you can observe new and old
China influencing each other for instance in the form of posters of Mao and Xi Jinping which are often displayed next to each other – some of the booths actually putting the latter in the
most exposed place. Symbolical triumph of the future over the troubled past?
Don’t be surprised if some of the sellers try to cheat you, initially
offering their goods at exorbitant prices. That’s how it generally works with
tourists in Asia. If despite your wearisome attempts the seller isn’t in the
least willing to substantially reduce the price, you can always proceed to the
next stand, as there is an incredible abundance of them offering most often
highly similar products, so it shouldn’t take too many efforts to save some of
your hard won RMBs. Prices generally vary depending on what you intend to buy,
but as a rule I can safely say that you can get most of the goods for 30% of
the price initially disclosed to you.
The only real downside to the place is the fact that there is no on
site way to examine the authenticity of the goods displayed, no certification
system or services of experts in the field.
No comments:
Post a Comment