the old central market
I saw a video posted on WeChat today that had me thinking back to my first few trips out to Yanqing. I didn't watch much of it, or read the accompanying text too closely, but the title, badly remembered and roughly translated, was something like "The Old Pit Market".
Not that long ago, Yanqing was the last county under Beijing Municipality. It was as very old school rural China as you'd see within Beijing City limits. Some might say it still is. Way back then, probably mid-2000s, in the middle of the county town was the old central market. I believe it's official name was something along the lines of "Central Market". It certainly did seem to be in a large pit in the centre of the town. I vaguely remember going down in there, walking around the stalls with The Wife (of course, she was The Girlfriend back then) buying up supplies for the trip out to her village. We'd load up our stuff in to one of the old micro vans that functioned as taxis and rumble, shake, and shudder our way up the highway.
Then the market was closed. Walled off behind the kinds of temporary fences used for construction sites. What emerged was a multistorey shopping mall with a Walmart in the basement and something of a plaza outside, somewhat circularly-shaped with shops and restaurants in the plaza. It opened up onto one of the central city streets on the eastern side, but also had entrances on the western side, northern side, and northwestern corner diagonally opposite the county hospital. There was also a slightly more obscure entrance running down from the big square. The northern side had the entrance to the street-level carpark and the basement carpark, the latter of which led directly in to the cluster of shops and foodstalls at the entrance and exit to the Walmart. I must confess that that Walmart became something of a lifesaver, being the only supermarket in the county where one could reliably purchase such luxuries as real coffee, cheese, and other international goods.
There was also a good little tea shop on the western side in an odd row of street-facing shops, otherwise disconnected from the mall.
Last time we were back there, December 2024 to January 2025, that mall was looking a bit sad. Dust and dirt had accumulated. The Walmart still had coffee in pre-packed filter bags, which was fine, and a reasonable range of snack food, but no cheese and precious little international foods. I did manage to pick up a book or two there, I think. "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" if I remember rightly. There was still plenty of commerce happening there, but it all felt old and tired.
The tea shop was still there, which was great. It's a branch of the same chain as 'my' tea shop down in Bejing city proper. You know how you have particular shops you go to for stuff? I always went to this one particular shop near our apartment in Chaoyang District. They knew me, my likes, my regular orders, etc. Finding a branch of that same chain in Yanqing was comforting, and seeing it still running last time we were there even more so. It helps to have an idea of the range and quality of teas that are likely to be available in the shop. Of course, after a few years away, I wasn't sure of prices. I used to always get three liang (150 grams, if I'm getting the maths right) of longjing (龙井, long2jing3, "dragon well", a green tea from the Hangzhou area) as a regular order, and that would cost me 30 yuan. Obviously being out of the country means I don't know what, if anything, 30 yuan would get me these days.
While we'd been away and entirely new shopping mall had been built, also multi-storey and bright and shiny. It was quite the bustling place and had some actually quite cool stores in there as well as all the usual brands. I found one place selling a chocolate imported from Germany that claimed to be 100% cocoa. Yes, of course I had to try it - you really needed to ask? It was damn good chocolate, but very, very much of the small doses variety. Just nibble a little each day, for safety's sake, definitely don't try any more than a nibble at a time sort of chocolate. But good. This new mall had been built some distance from the old mall, further out to the northeast of the county town, and evidently it was sucking some of the energy away from the old mall.
But just for a moment there a glimpse of a video had me thinking back to the old central market, single-storey shacks, dusty, dirty, gritty, but still cheerful and vibrant, even in the middle of winter in Beijing's coldest district.