Z is for Zhongshan

For the last letter of Round 9 at ABC Wednesday I'm bringing you to a favorite market of mine, the Zhongshan Antique Furniture Market.

When I first visited this market many years ago, there was no fancy gate like this to greet us and no real buildings, just a small loose group of vendors in makeshift structures selling antiques collected in villages near and far. (It's a pity I did not carry a camera in those early days!)

The market has expanded significantly over the decades and today it is an enormous formal complex of vendors selling antiques real and reproduced. Not only furniture, but you can find garden decor, home decoratives and knickknacks here... in stone, metal, wood and ceramic.

I am going to let my photos tell you the rest of the story.

 

Zhongshan, Guangdong, 2009

The red bubble between the City of Zhongzhan and Macau marks the spot where this market is.

Reflections in an Antique Market

It wasn't so great to explore an open air antique market in the rain, but it soon stopped, and when it did, I found reflections in the puddles and containers.  

This is one of several grand gates to the market:

Zhongshan, Guangdong, 2009

The Huacai Antique Market near Zhongshan is one I've visited several times over this past decade and it has, like most everything else in China, gotten both bigger and less authentic. Nonetheless, like any good flea market, there are delightful treasures of all sizes and at all prices to be found here, real and reproduced.

I like to rummage around places no one else goes. This is one of the many back alleys of this huge compound. I wish I could think of something to do with one of these old doors:

These stone pots would look fabulous in any garden.

 

Posted for Weekend Reflections. The link takes you to many other interesting reflections. You'll see a larger image if you click on the photo.