Where’s Keith? Part II May 8, 2016

In contrast to the modern shopping malls in the Xidan Commercial District, on Sunday I went to the Panjiayuan Flea Market. This flea market is known as the largest (520,000 sq. ft.), most complete, cheapest and most popular market selling second hand goods and curios in China. There are so many types of goods in the market that it is like a museum. It has antiques, crafts, calligraphy, paintings, ivory carving, jewlery, musical instruments, porcelain, etc.

Some of the interesting antiques I found was this phone. Many of the young people of today would not remember what a phone with a dial would look like. But how many of you remember phones that did not even have a dial? And to boot, this phone was made of wood. Even these gramaphones were neat to see. I am sure if I had looked, they would have recordings on disks that you could play on these things. I wonder if they have a ESB port to plug in my iPod. I bet my brother-in-law Brian could install one!

When they say that this market is like a museum, they are not kidding. There are people selling items like magazines and banners from the cultural revolution in the 1940’s. I don’t know who buys these things but someone does as there are lots of venders selling these items. Of course, there are the other types of goods such as pottery and religious relics. The problem is, unless you know what you are looking

for, you are probably buying a fake. But if that does not matter then who cares as long as you like it!

Here’s a guy resting after a hard day!