Shanghai's 'other' market

By Wu Yiyao in Shanghai (China Daily) Updated: 2012-10-06 10:10

It's a city famous for stock market wheeling and dealing, but Shanghai is also home to an equally-vibrant street market scene.

When Jenny Chu lived in London, she enjoyed nothing better than to spend her weekends wandering around the city's many famous markets and street stalls with friends, hunting for bargains, trying out different types of food, stopping for coffee, or simply watching the world go by.

Second-hand items find a new lease of life at flea markets around Shanghai. [Photo / China Daily]

Her favorites were Borough and Camden markets, and when she returned to the skyscrapers and loud, towering streets of Shanghai she feared she would find it hard to continue her weekend passion.

But the 29-year-old graphic designer, who now works for a visual art firm in the city, says Shanghai's market scene is just as thriving as in the UK capital - in fact, in many ways, it's even better.

"London has so many markets to go to, and I enjoyed them so much.

"But in Shanghai, markets play just as important a role for many people. Market life here is very exciting and very varied," says Jenny.

Local street markets are certainly not a new addition to Shanghai life. There has always been a tradition in the city of gathering with friends, family and neighbors at weekends, at marketplaces near to home, to mingle, dine, shop, or just wander.

Shanghai's oldest neighborhoods have always blended work, home and recreation - a long history of what today's urban theorists like to call "mixed use".

Anyone can become stall owner for a day selling their creative crafts or vintage goods. [Photo / China Daily]

For Jenny, and many other residents in Shanghai, an ideal weekend means finding great shopping and eating places, right on their own doorsteps.

Her ideal market is one selling organic food and other healthy products. Ideally it's a colorful and energetic place, and luckily for her, there are now many such local markets dotted around the city, the pioneer of which is the famous Jiashan Market, which calls itself "Shanghai's urban garden community".

The city's best markets are local in flavor, but equally welcome to anyone who cares to visit.

There are a about a dozen like Jiashan, in corners all over Shanghai, the best among them Ambassador's Market, DADA night market, Asia Dream Factory Flea Market and Jing'an Market.

Since its creation in 1979 as the Shanghai Knitting Factory 25, Jiashan complex has been a vital part of its own vibrant, tightly-knit, and entrepreneurially-spirited neighborhood, right in the heart of the city's historic French concession.

It's own website suggest it "meets the new Shanghai's aspirations to make city living greener, more sustainable and healthier". Occupying the middle of a large city block, it's accessible from two directions via a traditional Shanghai lane.

Just follow the salty smells of fresh seafood, then enjoy the many groceries hidden behind shop windows which display everything from vegetables to pet food and newly-baked pastries.