Panjiayuan Flea Market, Beijing, China

.....If you'll be in Beijing over the weekend, get up early and make a trip to Panjiayuan, a giant flea market where every imaginable curio, artifact and fake Tang dynasty knock-off is on sale.....

“Dirt Market”

It used to be called the "dirt market" because peasants would cart in objects they supposedly unearthed themselves, squat in the market's open field and hawk their wares. There are no peasants now, and the market grounds are no longer just an open field, but there are still plenty of merchants selling everything from antiques to paintings.

INFO 

• This colourful and fascinating market offers a huge assortment of antiques and oddities by more than 3,000 registered stallholders.
• Only on weekends, you will find some vendor coming from all parts of China to show their personal stuff or artifacts they collect and sell on the ground in a designatedted area in the market. They just put a piece of blanket on the floor and put what they have on it. If you come here on other week days, you won't see these free vendors. It is actually a huge market place for selling and collecting Chinese folk handcrafts, maybe the largest in Asia! What you will see are jewelry, ceramics,calligraphy, teapots, ethnic clothing, Buddha statues, paper lanterns, Cultural Revolution memorabilia, PLA belts, Ming- and Qing-style furniture, old pipes, opium scales, and painted human skulls and many many more.
• Even Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former First Lady of the United States, have purchased things in Panjiayuan antiques market.

                                  

At 7.00 a.m. many vendors and shoppers already inside the market. See the parking lot by the north gate.

What to Buy:

The answer is just about anything. Here's a look at what's on offer virtual tour.

A quick list of some of the things you'll find:

• Jewelry such as amber, jade, pearls, coral, turquoise and much more
• Chinese furniture
• Ethnic minority pieces such as Miao embroidery and silver clothing accessories
• Cultural Revolution-era items
• Chinese paintings and calligraphy objects
• Buddhist statuary
• Porcelain & ceramics
• Cloissone

                          

OTHER INFORMATION:

1) Opening time: 8:30-18:30 from Monday to Friday,

        4:30- 18:30 Saturday & Sunday

2) Satueday and Sunday are best they to go

HOW TO GET THERE:

Panjiayuan Market is located No.18, Huaweili Road, just 100 meters east of Panjiayuan Bridge on the east third ring road. It is its main gate - the north gate. If you take the bus or taxi here, you'd better enter the north gate. If you drive to Panjiayuan Market, you should go through the west gate. The west gate has a huge park lot while there is no parking place at the north gate. To get to the west gate, you just drive past the north gate westward and turn left at the first traffic light, for about 100 meters on your left side, you will find the west gate.

THE END..........(@~@)