Shanghai Xiangyang Market closing in June
Jun 11th, 2006 by Yue
When traveling in China I often run into my fellow Americans. One interesting thing I’ve found is that most of them, whether travelling for business or tourism, have visited, or plan to visit, the Shanghai Xiangyang market. It’s an open air market, open 7 days a week, located on Huaihai Road in one of the main shopping districts in Shanghai. It’s always packed with shoppers, including lots of foreigners. As a result, many of the sellers are fluent in English.
The market is famous for low prices and plenty of counterfeit goods of big European and US brands. You can buy a North Face jacket or Abercrombie Fitch T-shirt for one tenth the retail price in regular shops. Some of the goods are even real. Since most big name brands are now manufactured in China factory overruns or rejects often make it to the market.
Its always fasinating to visit the Xiangyang market. You can find many small treasures, usually for almost nothing. Sadly its closing in June. The closing is a symbolic gesture from the Chinese government that it is taking steps to reduce piracy in China. But for many people, they’ll lose a favorite place to shop or a place to make a living.