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China Elevator Stories
“I’m afraid my mother will get lost on her way to the market”
My husband worries about his mother, who is new to Shenzhen.
03/07/2014
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
Two days after his parents’ arrival, my husband says:
“Maybe we should go buy groceries ourselves in the evening. I’m afraid my mother will get lost on her way to the market.”
My husband has shown his mother the market on Sunday, the day of their arrival, so I’m confident that she’ll find her way to the wet market and back.
When we come back home in the evening on Tuesday, my MIL tells us proudly: “I went to another market. The vegetables there are much cheaper than at the one you showed me.” She shows us the celery she bought: “It cost only 2 Kuai”. In addition to the celery, she also bought 25 kg of rice, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, fish and meat, all together at a much lower price than what you’d pay at the other market, not to mention what you’d have to pay at a grocery store.
My husband asks: “Where is this place and how did you find it?” My husband could only find one market close-by.
She tells him: “In the morning, I went outside to go to the market. When I was downstairs, I saw that there were many people carrying vegetables who all came from one direction, the exact opposite direction of the market you showed me. So I asked them about the way and followed the street the other way. This wet market is really close-by, closer than the other one. They also have a bigger variety of vegetables.”
Sometimes, a stranger is needed to find new places in a city.
Have you ever been to a wet market in China?