In the era when social media and short videos are so developed, Beijing still retains such a word-of-mouth market, a dead end, a wild place.
Wen | rejoiced
Editor| Yao Lu
Figure| Yin Xiyuan (except by signature)
Wild Market
At three o'clock in the morning in Beijing, a woman was speeding on a tricycle. She braked at an intersection within the second ring road, and under the dim streetlights, there were a few flashes of white light flickering and swaying.
This is it, under the light of the unbreakable dawn, there are figures, a place called Xiaoshi.
This summer, I came across a vlog on the Internet, and blogger Zhu Baolei recorded her experience of coming to Xiaoshi. The first thing she heard was the stall owner shouting, do you want it? One dollar a piece. Clothes for sale were hung on railings by the river, shared bicycles and grass, pork nuggets and vibrating sticks were placed together, ornaments from the nineties cost a few dollars, fresh fish also appeared, and stall owners chanted Amitabha Buddha with a buddha statue... She said in the video that this is the ideal ghost city, full of wild fun.
At six o'clock in the morning, the city management appeared and closed the stalls on time. She came home with the early summer sun, and I suddenly felt that Beijing had become cute.
More people are familiar with the ghost market, which usually opens in the middle of the night until the dawn, and in the past, the big willow tree ghost market in the East Fourth Ring Road and the Panjiayuan ghost market selling antiques were the same (now centrally managed). Xiaoshi is a little later, before dawn opens, and the sky disperses. But no one knows here. This 17-minute recording is almost the most complete video recording of Dongzhimen Xiaoshi on the Internet. In the era when social media and short videos are so developed, Beijing still retains such a word-of-mouth market, a dead end, a wild place.
After that, we went to Xiaoshi for the first time. On one side of it is a high-rise high-end residence, the house hanging from the sales office is priced at 26.99 million, and the other side is an old residential area. Xiaoshi has no centralized management, does not charge booth fees, a piece of cloth spreads, people can set up stalls, not regular, not commercial. The start time is uncertain, some people come at 2 o'clock, some people come at 5 o'clock, the location is not fixed, but it is near the Dongzhimen Triangle - this is the junction of Chaoyang District and Dongcheng District.
This day is a weekend, there are many people, the most is the uncle. Sitting on the matza was a master in a vest, he had long gray-white hair, tied up haphazardly, and a duck-tongue hat on his head, and he was wild in the chaos. There were three or four things loosely placed on his stall, and we picked up a brown satchel, and my friends who were traveling with him read it in pieces, feeling like a brand-name bag.
Uncle said, 5 dollars to take away. It had just rained heavily, and there were still water droplets on the bag, so we took out a paper towel and wiped it clean, and the texture of the skin was good.
Uncle urged, hurry up and buy, I'm going home. He had just finished talking with the stall owner next door, and he told the other party that he would not be able to come out in the future, and when he was older, no one in the family would let him. He also asked, Old Li did not come today. The other person said, hey, his daughter-in-law is hospitalized and has been busy running the hospital lately. They sound like a group of old buddies, and they are also the most mainstream group in Xiaoshi, older, home nearby, occasionally come to sell something and chat with the people next to them. In addition to the high-rise buildings in Beijing's East Second Ring Road, there are also dense old residential areas. These people, who would not be met in the hustle and bustle of the city during the day, are here. Roadside parking is a tripod, disabled and electric tricycles, as well as wheelchairs.
Uncle also said, 4 pieces to take away, 4 pieces to take away.
We offer a $5 bill. Before coming, we collected some banknotes from various pockets. We quickly put the bag on the shoulder, the uncle looked back for a 1 yuan note, the friend did not dare to pick up at first - a long time without paper money, and a long time has not bought such a low price of things, it may be a good thing. Besides, the other party was an old man who came out in the middle of the night to sell goods, with untidy teeth and leaky speech—she felt that she had taken advantage of the other party.
After the uncle left, we opened Jingdong, identified the satchel, and the same bag that appeared on the page was Celine, with a price of 30,000. At this time, the sky was dawn, the sky was a very pure blue, and we stroked the bag in the newborn sun, grateful that there was such a wonderful corner in Beijing.
Blindfolded to buy, veiled to sell
After a few days, I came to Xiaoshi again. After the last dispersal, friends searched for the identification of genuine bags on the Internet, and the first one was, please observe the logo on the package. She glanced at the bag that she had been reluctant to take all the way, and it seemed that she did not need to observe any lines, there was not even a logo on the bag, and Celine's dream was shattered. But the price of 1 yuan on the Xiao market still gives us a kind of happiness of spending thousands of dollars.
It was Thursday, 3:30 a.m., and there were not many people, and a great uncle sat on a bare stall, spread four pieces of cloth, and occupied the seat. The market called him the sixth brother, old Beijing, according to him, Chinese New Year's Eve also lived in Xiaoshi. He represents the player community in Xiao City. He wore an army green vest, a baseball cap embroidered with Trump 2020 on his head, a flashlight, and said he would take me around twice and teach me some market rules.
For example, you have to have a skill. Along the way, the sixth brother kept asking me: What do you know? What do you want to buy? Players here play a fine, play clothes into the clothes pile to find the brand logo; play tape, play antiques, play watch... This belongs to culture, the sixth brother said, from the time there were human beings, from the beginning of primitive society, people took things from each other to exchange, there was a stall. The sixth brother is a catcher in Xiaoshi, who picks and buys from other people's stalls, and then sells them in his own stalls, which is equivalent to a Xiaoshi buyer's shop.
A stall owner in a black T-shirt stretched out his arm and dragged a calligraphy painting to sell, asking for 10,000 yuan. The light of the flashlight hit on it, and before we could look closely, the stall owner said, (I) am blind, anyway, you are still 20, sell, understand you to buy, do not know how to pull down. The tone is very upright. Before the next stall, the stall owner introduced something: this Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, Jiaqing year, also asked for 10,000 yuan. The sixth brother said, what generation of? No one is blind. The other party nodded, this is not to buy under the mask, to sell under the cover.
But soon, the sixth brother also showed us his professionalism. He looked at a pair of shoulder-to-shoulder Maitreya Buddhas with five children on their bodies and said that this Maitreya Buddha was not young, but had to be from the 80s of the last century. He bargained and bought it for 150 bucks. We carried Maitreya Buddha back to the sixth brother's stall, and after a while someone watched. The sixth brother offered 250 yuan. Playing is a thrilling time difference. The two sides traded for 210 yuan, hey, just make 60 yuan. The sixth brother set off from his own stall, bought a large blue and white porcelain scroll cylinder, borrowed a tricycle to transport, and was intercepted halfway through, sold, and earned dozens of yuan.
Shoulder Maitreya Buddha rejoice
The sixth brother said that there was a stall owner who had a monthly pension of 7,000 yuan. The sixth brother himself recently has a one-bedroom apartment that is being rented out, more than 5,000 yuan a month. His voice messages were always accompanied by the sound of clams. For them, at this age, there is no need to worry about food and clothing, coming to Xiaoshi is an addictive pastime, not for money, I will earn some money. It is to buy blindly and sell blindly, is to play. Just like it.
The sixth brother was born in the 1960s of the last century, and came to Xiaoshi at the age of 15 to mix, and at that time, Xiaoshi was already in the triangle of Dongzhimen. Earlier, Xiaoshi flowed from the roots of the wall of the Andingmen Gate in old Beijing to the roots of the City Wall of Deshengmen, and at that time, there were eight flags of people who sold goods, and they sold the objects left by the ancestors, and there were also thieves, hiding in their sleeves for trading.
In the early 1950s, the writer Xiao Jun came to Beijing and was being excluded from the literary and art circles, just in time to visit the morning market in Beijing. At that time, Xiaoshi was located within the walls of Deshengmen. He wrote in the article: At that time, I was almost addicted to running Xiaoshi, and I went almost every day. Sometimes, I leave without combing my head or washing my face. Buying paintings and stamps is his hobby. Occasionally, if I don't go for a day, I feel empty in my heart.
Offline
Under the words and deeds of the sixth brother, we felt that we could go out of the teacher and go on a trip alone. I looked at a clay pot with four small ears, covered with patina and a few notches. The stall owner sat and played with his mobile phone, ignoring people. This makes the clay pot even more attractive. He asked for 200. I thought to myself, I have to be a little harder, when I say 50, I am very weak. The stall owner said, take it.
Not good. The sixth brother taught me that you can't make random bids, and when people say yes, you have to take it. It was difficult to ride the tiger, and I tried to play with Lai ,—— 50 yuan and another small jar for me. The other party rejected me. At the time of payment, the name of the other party's account is Old Antique. I hugged the jar tightly, thinking that the other party might be professional, and this jar was worth it. Look at those three words again, yes, old, ancient, understand. The words of the sixth brother rang in my ears: "Net blindness gives people money."
Walking in Xiao City with a jar in his hand attracted the attention of the great master. Sometimes I say I bought it for 200 bucks, sometimes I say I bought it for 5 bucks and feel as upright as a stall owner who says 10,000 bucks. It seems that some kind of freedom has been gained here, and the behaviors that have been disciplined in mainstream life, such as keeping a distance between people, not crossing the line and breaking the trust, all fail here. In Xiaoshi, people come and go, they will naturally make fun of each other, they will be naturally close, and no one will care about it. I felt the charm of offline life again.
The encounter between people and objects is also full of fate and coincidence. In fact, I am used to watching the evaluation and promotion of bloggers before shopping, placing orders on the e-commerce platform, logistics is fast, we receive packages, take out things, exactly what I need, and will never exceed my expectations. But in Xiaoshi, you never know what's on the next stall.
After learning the actual price of my jar, a white-clad uncle wanted to stop talking and had a rich expression, saying, "You are happy and happy." I remembered that Xiao Jun also wrote: In the day of the black gollum, I saw a white magnetic bodhisattva with very fine craftsmanship and a very unique shape in Xiaoshi, which is really good! The price is also cheap, about two yuan, I bought it. When it was dawn, I took it home and took a closer look, and this beautiful bodhisattva's neck was broken, and it was made of glue! This can make the children laugh and laugh.
The next time I met Uncle White, he saw a gray calf-shaped piggy-shaped piggy bank in our arms, and he couldn't help it: This thing is plastic! How do you catch what to buy? Catch what to buy! Quite hate iron is not steel.
When we went to Xiaoshi for the first time, the uncles were shocked and recruited the little girls, and someone enthusiastically pointed us the way, walked forward, turned, and the worker body was there. That's where young people in Beijing jumped. Young people will only pass by Xiaoshi when they play until midnight. But we happened to meet a young girl who was setting up a stall in Xiaoshi, sitting on a few white pieces of paper, and wrote on the cardboard in front of her, 2-10 yuan is a tarot, and there is an IELTS textbook next to it. The masters gathered around and asked if they wanted to provide birthdays or names. In front of the girl were scattered a few bills of one, five and ten yuan, and the fortune tellers were all uncles. Uncles are most concerned about health. A great uncle asked three questions in a row: how healthy will it be for the next three months, how healthy it will be for the next six months, and how healthy it will be for the next year.
Rags city
I went to Xiaoshi several times, and once on the road, I met a very small figure, under the tall Dongzhimen overpass, she pushed a wheelchair and walked forward little by little. We finally met in Xiaoshi, her stall next to the sixth brother, neatly arranged with brushes, bowls and other household items, she was in a wheelchair, not answering the price, talking to herself, her ears could not hear.
After a while, she held a few 5 yuan and 10 yuan bills in her hand and asked the sixth brother, is this money fake? The sixth brother said, no fake, no one has fooled you. The old lady slowly sat back in her wheelchair, saying she was 85 years old.
There was also an old man sitting on a matza and selling. In his right hand he held five or six lids of different colors and used plastic crisper boxes stacked together, and in his left he held a frying pan, and his two hands stubbornly held those things horizontally, constantly shouting at the people who came and went, two pieces a piece, a dollar two, and the voice was old.
The sixth brother told me that this belongs to the broken city, and a group of them also need to live, so they sell those things. This is the other side of Xiaoshi. He was rarely solemn, reminding me not to make a fuss about what others were selling. This place accepts anyone, anything. Take something, take a piece of cloth, and you can sell it. We saw a pair of white panties with yellowed crotches, a perhaps used bath ball, a scarred apple, a black plastic bag, and a roast duck that had been broken down into pieces.
But more than that, it's food and daily necessities. A middle-aged man wearing a blue vest with the name of the unit imprinted on it was silently carrying expired or expiring food and drinks, collecting money, and selling. A big sister with a baseball cap and a large body picked out 3 wheels of bread from the plastic basket on the stall and spent 5 yuan. She is from northeast China, almost 60 years old, and has been in Beijing for more than 20 years.
In the early morning, two women dressed in sanitation workers' vests appeared. Brooms and mops stand above sanitation vehicles. A handful of green onions were taken out of the car and placed on top, and two cabbages. The sanitation truck was polished and contained some scarred loofahs and apples. Passers-by gathered around, touching this, touching that. The northeast sister quickly bought the two cabbages for 1 yuan.
After buying things, the northeast sister simply helped the middle-aged man sell things, she was enthusiastic, her voice was also big, and explained to the people who came and went that his things were not stolen, they were received. She told me that she came to Xiaoshi every day, and she had more than a decade of experience in Xiaoshi, and she knew the sources of things for middle-aged men and sanitation workers: rotten dishes in restaurants, expired food in supermarkets. They cleaned nearby, restaurants and supermarkets were given to them.
In addition to food, many things are moved by people in the community, throwing away the garbage cans, cleaning and cleaning, and then packing up and selling. For example, a pair of YSL pants, sold for 10 yuan, the stall owner is a cleaner in a high-end community. But in the tattered city, more than such good things, there are expired medicines, cola and instant noodles, moldy steamed buns, and even, bags of cooked rice.
The eldest sister in the northeast said that she was married to a Beijinger for the second time, so that she could eat, live and live in peace. But she knew and experienced the hardships of these people: selling points, he was good at eating. It is to earn some pocket money, and it is not easy for people from other places to work. Just calculate, buy a steamed bun for a dollar.
At 4:00 a.m., a group of substitute drivers appeared in Xiaoshi, who had just finished their overnight work. They gathered around the stall, this stall is cheap, the things are more than 1 yuan 1 piece. One man picked up a box of scattered cotton swabs and flipped it over in his hand to look at it, a second-hand water bottle and leather shoes hanging from the folding bike.
At 6 o'clock, the sky was bright, the morning bus ran out, and Xiaoshi closed the stalls. It was like an adventure, the dark corners became dark corners again, and everything that happened in the early morning was gone. The cleaners who came to set up the stalls resumed their day's work. Before closing the stall, a great uncle picked up the red accordion on the stall and pulled it up, and the melodious sound drifted away.