To Market

Truly one of my favorite places on earth -- the vegetable market is located just outside our university campus, a half mile walk from our apartment. I love the busy-ness, haggling, colors and smells, and mostly the feeling that I am a part of this neighborhood.

My first year in Changsha I think I lived like an American, in China. Thereafter, I have been working towards living just like my neighbors. No longer feeling the need to purchase meat from the supermarket where it is refrigerated, now I am buying it off the hooks!

In US currency:

Pork is $2.13 for 1.1 lbs.

Lean ground pork is about $1.90 per 1.1 lbs.

Beef is $3.04 for 1.1 lbs.

Chicken...I forget right now...get back to you on that.

How does that compare to prices in the US?

Observation: Most of the pork sellers are women. The beef sellers (an extreme minority) are all men. Why?

I hope to buy a live fish soon, or maybe a live chicken or duck this summer if my mom comes to teach me how to cut it up. I don't feel a need to get eels, frogs, pigeons or doves.

On to the covered vegetable area.

The ladies who I always buy from have wonderful carrots, spinach, lettuce, green onion, celery, cucumber, white carrot, onion, corn, green beans, snap peas, snow peas, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, tomatoes, lotus root, hot peppers, eggplant, shallots, potatoes, cilantro, chives, tarot root, mushrooms, sprouts, cabbage and varieties of leafy green vegetables that I don't know the name for.

I can also buy dried beans, legumes and grains, including brown rice.

Special tofu.

Pickled preserved vegetables.

Again, how do those meat prices compare with the US' prices?