MARCHÉ AUX ANTIQUITÉS DE PANJIAYUAN

Panjiayuan is a huge flea market under a huge hangar, surrounded by small buildings with more precious furniture or objects, or more commonly known as books or posters. The aisles between the main hangar and the other buildings are covered with mats on which smaller sellers offer a handful of objects (often the most interesting ones). On weekends, it takes several hours to methodically arduate the alleys and search eye-searching among unusual and disparate objects in order to find the one who will, in one stroke, awaken all the senses of the china! And there is a long palabre with calculators in support to negotiate an acceptable price for both parties! It contains everything from the copy of ceramics to Mao's effigy wristwatch, to mah-jong games, to the old background memories of granaries, and sometimes to the lucky ones, who come up with interesting pieces of interesting pieces. But this is becoming ever rarer, even if sellers try to convince you that everything is old. Unfortunately, and as in many tourist places in Beijing, prices are rising and multiplying in just a few months! The best time to do business in Panjiayuan is in the middle of winter, while merchants are pressed for selling to start hot, or even in full summer when the heat is untenable under the hangars, and the tourists, half asphyxiated, pass quickly.

If you stay on the market for a long time, you can find that on both sides of the entrance there are many small walking bistros - as well as a coffee - which will offer stuffed crepes, varied soups or bowls of Chinese noodles that are usually delicious.