China Part VII - Yangshuo

The Morning Market in Yangshuo
We were up early for a western style breakfast (Chinese breakfast was optional but not always preferable) so that we could tour the produce and meat market on a full stomach. For some that was not necessarily the best decision.

The morning market was just across the street from the hotel and about half way down the block. It had two entrances on the street. You would enter one and exit the other in sort of a 'U' shape with meat and fish etc. on the perimeter and the fruit and vegetables in the center, basically. It was enclosed and roofed with an amber translucent material that gave the entire market a yellow sort of tone or glow.

The Chinese buy fresh every day. They don't make much use of refrigeration or ice. Drinks are served either hot or at room temperature. Hygiene, by American standards, didn't seem to be a big priority as you will see from the photos.

We started at the western entrance of the market (at the right shoulder of the man in the white shirt),

and were immediately absorbed into a cacophony of commerce, the chopping and selling and haggling of the 'meat' section, and I use the term meat, loosely. There were things for sell that I couldn't identify. The floor was a little slick from animal fat but it smelled great...not!

The center of the market was a cornucopia of produce, fruits, vegetables, roots, spices, grains, dried beans, nuts, mushrooms, pastas and candies and even some canned goods. It was a panoply of colors. Everything looked so fresh, colorful and appealing.

The livestock cages were also located in the center section.There were a variety of caged animals like rabbits, chickens ducks and the like. All the livestock is pretty much of the free-range variety. (Outside were trucks with more cages.)

On the east wall there some booths with ready to eat cooked items.

This area also is where you would find fish, clams, eels and all sorts of other creepy crawlies i.e. snakes, toads, frogs, beetles etc. The northern Chinese say that the people of the south will eat anything on four legs...but the table.

Along the south wall was the butchery. (Be advised the following photos may be disturbing to some, you may choose to skip over these.) This is where the Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Dogs and Cats were butchered. Here they are processing chickens, ducks and geese.

This man has just removed a rabbit from a vat of boiling water after which he is able to scrape the hair from the carcass.

Here are pussy cats awaiting their fate.

Lastly, here are dogs the dogs. There are large cages with several dogs. One is removed, it's throat slit and it bleeds to death as it is hung from the cage its lifeblood draining into a bucket while the other dogs watch. It was worse than going to the dog pound and looking into the eyes of the dogs hoping you will adopt them. Here the dogs look at you, their eyes pleading, why won't you save me? Until recently the Chinese didn't keep cats or dogs as pets. They raised them strictly as livestock. Today in the cities you see them as pets, but the guides told us this is a new development over the past ten years or so. Consumption of dogs and cats as food now mostly takes place in the southern Cantonese provinces.

Here are a couple of dogs after being boiled and the hair removed.

At the east entrance/exit there was an inviting restaurant, the Dog Meat Restaurant, it was not open however, it did not have morning hours.

(I had tried to check it out the night before but it had just closed by the time I'd arrived. I had heard from those that have experienced it that dog meat is quite tasty, but alas, never got the opportunity to find out for myself.) There was also more fruit, like these huge pomelos, as we exited onto the street.

Just outside the entrance there was a little old, short lady that had been inside shopping who made Dee Anna look like a giant so she stood next to her for a photo.

The morning market was quite an experience.

Up next:
Visiting a kindergarten, bike riding through the countryside and a visit to a 300 year old farmhouse.