A different kind of World Market

Yesterday we went to a local market. It was huge and people were selling everything imaginable to make medicinal teas. We saw live scorpions in ever size, large bags of red skins off peanuts, ciadia shells (not sure that's right but its the bug shells on trees in the early spring), every kind of root, seahorses, fish scales...you name it they have it. It smelled like a mixture of dead fish, onions and animal excrement. Lily pointed out several things for the common cold, toothaches, headaches, etc. She would say, "You make tea and it very nice for ___." We have never seen anything like it for sure.

They also had a pet market. They even had a cage full of chipmunks. I wondered if they were truly pets or if this was the local fresh meat market for dinner. I'm thinking that one of those chipmunks could have been the tiny animal we ate at the chinese restaurant. There were lots of stores selling very nice aquariums and pans with of all kinds of fish lined the sidewalks. Lily said people really enjoy aquariums in China.

We walked on and ended up in a mall. People have tiny stores where they sell their good. It was sort of like a flea market at home. Inside there was a wholesale pearl market which was very interesting. We saw more pearls there than we've seen in our lifetimes. There were eight people with huge buckets of pearls they were putting on strands for $1,000. Lily said it was a very good price. They had all kinds, shapes, colors and sizes. Dale bought Rachel a beautiful ring and me some very pretty earrings.

While there Lily told us that Chinese women traditionally have only three pieces of jewelry. Dale looked at me and said, "Well, aren't you lucky." I certainly am! Lily has a necklace with a jade pendant her mom gave her when she was very young, a bracelet from her husband and another from her son. Costume jewlery and wedding rings are not Chinese traditions.

There is also a jade market in the mall area. We may venture back over that way and pray we don't get lost. We went down several alleys and saw row after row of those dried creatures and roots before we made it there. I'm taking a card from our hotel so we can get a taxi and hope we make it back!