Small World, Big City: Panjiayuan Antiques Market

Today I went to an arts and antiques market called Panjiayuan. I had been planning to go earlier, but my Chinese friend suggested that I wait and go with her, because she was certain that I would get ripped off.

I love Panjiayuan! It's like going to a museum, except everything is for sale. It's divided into many sections. My favorite of course, was the paintings. Acrylic and oil on canvas, Chinese brush painting and water color, silk weaved paintings, and aisles and aisles of calligraphy. I saw a painting with horses that I really liked, for my brother, who was born in the year of the horse. When you purchase a painting, you can take it to a calligrapher, who will write something on it for you. My friend suggested some phrases, and I picked one, which the calligrapher wrote then and there.

Because I myself paint, I seldom find paintings that I really want to buy, mainly because I enjoy the process of making it myself. There was however, an enormous painting of a Buddhist deity, with several arms. It was done beautifully, and would be impossible for me to create anything near to it. The problem wasn't the price--whatever they charged was very cheap compared to prices in the US--1800 Rmb for a huge painting, and I probably could have bargained it down to 1200--about 200 USD. The problem was that it was so huge--I wasn't really sure there was any place in our house to put it. This is the type of painting that should be hung in the lobby of a hotel, with high ceilings. Additionally, it would have costed around 500 at least to frame it.

While I was walking, I thought about buying some random beads for my mom. My mom really likes fossils, which I don't really like at all. I thought I saw some Amber fossils, so I stopped, when I saw a stone pendant that I did like. It was made of pink crystal, and carved in the shape of a fox. I never buy stones of this sort, but I like foxes because they are cute and graceful at the same time. In lore, they are also very intelligent. The stone had a few tiny imperfections, and the seller said, "there are marks, but the color is good."

He was right, that stone was particularly pink, and it was quite large. My friend asked if there is a fox carved with better quality stone. The seller said, "normally, nice stones are not used to carve foxes. Foxes do not sell well." He reached into his bag, and pulled out a wrapped package. "This is what we carve using nice stones." It was a buddha, deep pink, almost opaque, and perfectly consistent in color.

I'm not sure why foxes do not sell well, but indeed this was the only store where I saw foxes at all. In Asia there is the ghost fox myth. The ghost fox, also known as a kitsune, is a controversial animal. In some stories, they are benevolent deities, while in others they disguise themselves as beautiful women to seduce men and steal their Qi. Perhaps they are a bit unpredictable, but I like them. They are far more interesting, even in their worst form, than the likes of Cinderella or Snow White, who don't really do anything at all except look pretty, get bullied because they are pretty, and then get saved because they are pretty and consequently a rich and powerful man marries them. At least the ghost fox has supernatural powers, and is crafty.

I tried to bargain with the owner, who originally refused. But, when he asked where I was from, I said I was an American but my dad's family was from Suzhou. This Suzhou dropping seems to work quite well for me. The man said, "I love Suzhou. I went to college there, it is my favorite place." As a result, he ended up giving me a rather large discount. I took my stone to be strung into a necklace, and wore it right away.

The market has a lot of other antiques, including old porcelain, and several aisles devoted just to jade. Another aisle has good carved of sandalwood. Sandalwood is one of my favorite smells. I think the best smell for women's perfume is jasmine or lilac, and for men it is sandalwood. I had bought two jasmine buds before, and they had been great--whenever a breeze blew, or I turned a bit, I would smell it. But then when I went to the bathroom it slipped from my shirt and fell into the toilet, so that was the end of that. Notably, a friend of mine from Virginia had told me that "only hookers wear jasmine." Whatever, jasmine is still one of my favorite scents, and in Asia, it's a very popular one. There were antique sandalwood fans that were very expensive but beautifully and intricately carved. Past the sandalwood, there were aisles of beads--ceramic beads, metal beads, stone beads--and many jewelers. Panjiayuan is probably the most interesting market that I have seen in China.

As I said yesterday, it hailed in Beijing, and my friend's car got dented really badly. Several little indentations are all over her roof and hood. I had been in a bad mood then, because I was tired and my knee hurt. While waiting in line for the bathroom, a little girl cut in front of me. Her dad said, "do you have to go urgently? Want to use the men's room?"

"Who wants to use the men's bathroom??" She snapped.

I let her go ahead of me, since she was small. On my way out however, another girl, older this time, tried to enter the stall while I was still in it. This is my biggest pet peeve in China--I already hate public restrooms because they are dirty, and I want to exit as soon as possible--it makes no sense to try to enter while I'm still in the tiny stall, they end up bumping me against the dirty wall, and it's just nasty for both of us--it's like trying to get into a parking space before the other person pulls out. So this time I snapped and said, "can you just wait for me to exit first??" She backed away, glowering at me.

My Chinese friend gave me a packet of paper soap, which has become one of my most appreciated items. Few restrooms have toilet paper or soap, especially in tourist places, so I have been grateful for this paper soap--it is in a stack, each sheet the size of one of those listerine strips. You wet it and it works great.

My friend went shopping with me again, because she thought I was better at bargaining. Afterwards, we tried to go to her favorite Peking duck place--it's in a small alley. The line was insane--so we will try to go there tomorrow instead. We tried another hot pot restaurant, and it was the same.

Apparently, today is "li chiou," the day when summer turns to autumn. From today supposedly, every day just gets colder and colder, so people are supposed to eat a good dinner today, and eat meat, to store fat for the winter. Hopefully we will be able to get a table somewhere. Beijing is similar to New York in that word of good restaurants tends to spread quickly, and there is often a line.