So the last few months I’ve been a major blog slacker – obviously. But after a couple small trips, the holidays, my family’s visit and winter finally coming to an end I’M BACK and have a lot of catching up to do.
Back in November, I went across town to Old Shanghai and explored one of the city’s wet markets. I think this market is also referred to as the “small animal, bird, fish and flower market” which is a really accurate summation of what they sell there. After the pet store around the corner of me sold their only two-mohawk squirrel I was anxious to see some other crazy “domestic” animals. The great thing about Old Shanghai is the absence of skyscrapers and huge corporate businesses. It feels so much more like "real" China.
The market has a lot of birds and a lot of birdcages. They pretty much sell anything from pigeons and roosters to more exotic tropical birds. I’m fairly confident those roosters and hens or whatever kind of chickens they had were not being sold as pets.
Once you buy your bird and a cage you can also find all sorts of critters and grains to feed it.
I felt pretty creepy crawly after walking through the bug section so then I went to check out the small animals. They had some really cute bunnies, a few puppies and kittens and lots of chipmunks and squirrels.
After those cute little creatures, I found the turtles. There were so many different kids. I felt pretty bad for the big ones as their cages were definitely not large enough.
Just my luck – there happened to be a deal on crickets and grasshoppers that day. One for three or two for five! You pretty much can’t beat a price like that or so I was informed.
The rest of the market was really random – you could buy a leash or a bed for your dog from the same vendor that was selling cacti.
A few vendors had a couple tropical looking plants for sale which is random because China is pretty much the exact opposite of a tropical country in terms of culture and weather (except in the deep south I guess).
And just in case you forgot what these cages might be used for, the vendors were kind enough to remind you by placing a small stuffed dog inside.
This wet market also happened to sell oranges which were not at all appealing after seeing the creepy crawly things, roosters wandering about and chipmunks just a couple cages over. But the addition of fruit apparently makes this market one-stop shopping. Who needs Target after visiting a market like this?
Well that pretty much covers the west market. I'm off for now to go study Chinese.
Zaijian!
