Panjiayuan
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2004
1
15
29
Trip End
Feb 01, 2008
Beijing,
China
Sunday, August 19, 2007
by Tom Carter
Perhaps not by coincidence, the Greek word Pangaea, meaning "all lands," is the
name historians have given to planet Earth before its continental drift 200
millions years ago, when the world was one.
Similarly named Panjiayuan,
Beijing's largest antiques fair, can likewise be described as a place where
every province in the People's Republic have come together to form their own
supercontinent-like market place. Indeed, one might spend years journeying
across China to uncover the same treasures that can be had in a day at
Panjiayuan.
Here, spanning landscapes of antiquated wares, art, precious
stones and revolutionary memorabilia meet precipitous mountains of books,
furniture, ceremonial dress and sundry jewelry. One must finally traverse vast
seas of dynastic china, heirlooms, national regalia and old coins before
emerging dusty, exhausted and burdened with your finds.
Along the way
you'll have encountered traditional Han, the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the nomadic
Drokpas of Tibet, all selling their goods side by side with about fifty other
ethnic minorities; the splendors of West China contrasting nicely with vestiges
of Beijing.
Scores of international visitors from the Orient to the
Americas to Europe peruse the eclectic bazaar to purchase relics that truly
cannot be found anywhere else in the world. But the market is also teaming with
spectators. Beijing elders who, not unlike moons orbiting a planet, crowd around
every negotiation taking place, finding much amusement in watching waiguoren
paying forty times more for a faux antique then what a local might pay for the
real deal.
Such is life on planet Panjiayuan.
[Panjiayuan is
located in Chongwen District off of Dongsanhuan Nanlu. Open Monday-Friday 8:30am
- 6pm, and Saturday-Sunday 4:30am - 6:30pm.]
###
Tom Carter of San
Francisco is an internationally published freelance photographer
and travel writer specializing in the People's Republic of China.
Tom has traveled extensively throughout all 33 Chinese provinces and autonomous
regions and currently resides in Beijing.
This article originally
appeared in a December 2006 edition of Beijing Talk magazine.
