There is a market for everything

In Beijing there's literally a market for everything. Want a new dress? Go to the fabrics market and then to your tailor. Decorating your home? Go to the furniture or antiques market. For pearls, real or fake, visit the pearl market.

If that's not enough, you can also visit Beijing's eye glasses market, tea markets, lamp market, silk market, toy market, camera market, and bird markets. (And these are only the ones I know about.)

Each market typically consists of rows and rows of indoor stalls or small shops; all on the same theme. The advantage is that you can easily compare products and prices. The down side is that it can be quite a drive to get to the market, and it is also not that rare (at least for me) to get totally overwhelmed by the number of products and people at the market. (And that is separate from the issue of trying to find out whether or not these products are real or fake.)

Yesterday we went to the camera market to look for a new camera. Here are some pictures from the day.

Narrow hallways inside the market. Everywhere are stores with camera's and camera equipment, from the actual camera to waterproof bags, clothes, and photo albums.

A Nikon store. We believe the products are real. (The prices were real.)

A Canon store.

Which lens did you want to buy?

Some happy customers at the Nikon store.


In het nederlands: gisteren zijn we op een "fotografiemarkt" geweest. In Beijing zijn enorm veel markten. Ze zijn soms buiten, maar veelal gewoon binnen. De ene markt verkoopt bijvoorbeeld alleen maar lampen, een andere antiek, en weer andere verkopen stoffen, thee, parels, zijde, of speelgoed. Ik ga niet zo vaak naar deze markten, maar als je (ongeveer) weet wat je wil dan kan het heel handig zijn om op zo'n markt alle prijzen en produkten te vergelijken.