"What's so fun about Guangzhou?"
Every newcomer to Guangzhou is stunned
This question comes to mind
And mobilize your own local network
Try to solve this age-old puzzle
However, the answer is often disappointing
"Canton Tower? See if that's what people say? Queue for two hours, punch in for five minutes, just to show that you are a turtle who can't play? "
"Chimelong? Which larger city doesn't have amusement parks and oceanariums? Why don't you talk about the net fish Internet café? ”
Some time ago, a friend who came to Guangzhou for the first time also encountered this dilemma.
Looking at the cookie-cutter punch-in recommendations, he had to find another way and open Tripadvisor, a favorite travel website for foreigners.
Unexpectedly, I found a place with a completely different painting style in a group of charming and cheap goods-
Qingping Chinese medicine market.
Its popularity among foreign tourists can punch the former site of the Whampoa Military Academy and kick the rising star Ersha Island.
Pay attention to the number of comments and the number of experiences
Compared with it, K11's popularity is still in the prehistoric period when it was rarely visited.
The testimonial left by a foreign friend is even more fascinating and imaginative: "This is a place that comes out of the movie, you must visit!" ”
What is the magic that makes a Chinese medicine market a foreigner's Internet celebrity punch card?
Next, I fell into thought.
It is said that when Marco Polo came to China, he was shocked by the flowers and green Chinese medicines and spat out his mouth.
However, he should not have expected that even after a thousand years, his descendants would still react the same way in the Qingping market.
As the country's largest Chinese herbal medicine market, the primary impact on foreign tourists here comes from the overwhelming amount and the vast variety.
If you use a little literary exaggeration to describe, then go to Qingping Chinese herbal medicine to go through:
The retina of the person is covered with a five-centimeter-thick slag.
In TripAdvisor's Qingping Market Comments Section, such comments abound. (The content of the comments is all machine translation)
No, a Norwegian aunt passionately asked: "What are they doing with these things?" Thousands of shops! Thousands of herbs! ”
I don't know if her ancestor Vikings would have feared if they had seen Chinese list of medicinal herbs in the first place.
Culture shock is always a two-way street.
Chinese tourists to Thailand will be stunned by the open sexual culture of the local area.
The Thai tourists who came to Qingping were also bombarded with a carpet-like blind spot, so that four exclamation points exploded in two sentences.
Compared with the "surprised" Westerners and Southeast Asians, Egyptian tourists from the same ancient civilization and local folk customs are equally vigorous, which are perfectly integrated into the atmosphere of The Qingping Market.
The picture of him smiling and holding up the dried snake reminds people of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh ancestors who had poisonous snakes on his head.
The above foreign tourists, the understanding of the Qingping Chinese herbal medicine market is basically still at the level of simple curiosity.
In a word, the emotion is nothing more than "Ah! Mysterious East! yes! Ancient legends! ”
However, there are also some tourists who are able to pull through this tulle and discover something more "Chinese".
A tourist from Singapore came across the "childcare" mysteries of Chinese businessmen.
When he came during the day, there were customers in front of the stalls selecting medicinal herbs. At night, the same "customers" are still picking up herbs.
Another Spanish tourist had bad luck and came to catch up with many shops that were closed.
He had planned to hunt for curiosity, but instead he became the object of the stall owners' curiosity.
In his words, everyone was staring at him like "with 3 heads".
Strictly speaking, Qingping Market is a large area.
In addition to the Chinese herbal medicine market, there is also a pet market and an aquarium market (now relocated).
In addition, this area with a long history also has many old people living here.
Many foreign tourists come here for the taste of "old Guangzhou".
In the eyes of a California tourist, Tianhe is a filtered fake Guangzhou, boring, and lack of personality.
Another Brazilian tourist also felt that it was only here that the truest side of China could be seen, and even left tears.
People who live here work too long hours, living in poor conditions, eating a lot of things that people in other countries don't eat at all, and can only struggle on the subsistence line.
However, some tourists are disgusted by the cultural customs here, and a Canadian tourist gave a one-star, saying that he would not go to China again.
There is a term in academia called Orientalism.
In short, it is a kind of Western-centrism, which refers to the view of the East as the opposite, hostile or biased to the oriental culture.
Revisiting the tourist reviews above, it's easy to spot the shadow of Orientalism. For example, the curious view of traditional Chinese medicine, demanding the environmental awareness of low-income people.
Of course, in the absence of understanding, prejudice is inevitable, and this is often the case Chinese foreign countries.
What the real appearance of the Qingping market is, you have to see it for yourself.
Some people say that Guangzhou was once the "Baghdad of the East", and the security was poor.
Some people say that Guangzhou is a holy place for doing business. A stud, a stud, a laugh haha, a defeat to pack up and go home.
All in all, these stereotypes form part of what many people know about Guangzhou.
Qingping Chinese Medicine Market is located on 623 Road in Liwan District, near Huangsha Metro Station. Out of the station, about ten minutes away.
As part of Guangzhou's old town, the nearby buildings and shop photos still retain the atmosphere of the old Guangzhou.
For northerners, there is some kind of exoticism.
From the subway station to the Qingping Chinese Medicine Market, the road will pass through a road full of medical supplies wholesale and aquatic products wholesale.
Although they had not yet reached their destination, there were already people on the side of the road who were tinkering with medicinal herbs, holding airbrushes to roast unknown fruits on the ground.
Later, when I arrived at the market, I learned that this thing was called Dendrobium. It is said that the "fairy grass" in ancient stories that went to the cliff to save people's adventures refers to it.
A little further on, the smell of Chinese medicine in the air became stronger. On both sides of the road, separate medicinal herb shops gradually began to emerge.
The shops lined up on the street and the densely packed Chinese medicinal herbs on the shelves seem to form a relationship of matryoshka dolls.
Ahead, there is the Qingping Chinese herbal medicine professional market full of Chinese herbal medicine shops.
As a 100% made in China, it is reasonable to say that they have long been accustomed to ordinary Chinese herbal medicines.
But when a huge amount of strange Chinese herbal medicines bombards you, you will still be shocked. I'm afraid, it is the Blood of Shennong in my bones that is doing it.
Many of the Chinese medicines sold here are unheard of. In Guangdong, where everything can be beautiful, medicinal herbs must also compete to be beautiful.
For example, the beautiful agaricus and cordyceps flowers in the picture.
There are also some strange herbs that do not have names.
For example, this one is called the Chinese medicine version of Ferrero.
And the common medicinal herbs in ordinary days also seem to have changed their appearance here. You may have seen a sandbag big fist, but have you ever seen a casserole pot with a big reishi mushroom?
In short, whether it is long on the ground or long on the ground, flying in the sky or swimming in the water, you can find it here.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Qingping seems to have turned the Compendium of Materia Medica into a three-dimensional reality version.
The sika deer specimen is a deer antler favorite platform
However, in contrast to the abundance of varieties, the use of these medicinal herbs appears to be quite simple.
I asked several herbs how to take them, and the answers I got were all Lao Guang's favorite cooking method - boiling soup.
Even the top cat's claw grass can't escape the fate of being boiled in soup
However, the price of a Chinese medicine soup is definitely not cheap.
Take the dendrobium I saw at the beginning, ask a circle, and the price of a catty is basically maintained at four figures.
Only a few dry goods are clearly priced
Moreover, it is said that the water here is very deep. A complete little white to shop, it is easy to be tricked into the trap of high prices and the like by merchants.
The hospital office asked a shopkeeper about the "pilgrimage" boom of foreigners coming here, and the boss said that there were indeed many foreigners who came here to visit in the past, and there were many people during the day and night.
But because I didn't buy medicinal herbs, the boss didn't want to bother with me anymore, and the bosses of other homes were probably like this, and you can see at a glance that you are not here to buy things, and you have no desire to talk to me.
Probably because of the ban on wild game, the current Qingping Chinese herbal medicine market can no longer see this kind of live scorpion photographed by foreign tourists
Overall, the Qingping Chinese Herbal Medicine Market is divided into three parts, one is the building of the Qingping Chinese Herbal Medicine Professional Market, the second is the Qingping East Medicinal Materials Market not far away, and the third is the individual shops gathered outside the market building.
In addition to the shops responsible for sales, there are also shops that are responsible for flouring, slicing and packaging medicinal herbs.
Taken together, it is a dragon in the Chinese herbal medicine industry.
Correspondingly, there are workers who are attached to this industrial line.
Remember the foreign tourist who wept because of the locals' living conditions?
Walk around Qingping and you'll be able to figure out what makes her feelings—it's full of ukiyo-e paintings of Lower Chinese laborers.
For example, on a hot summer day (july when the hospital office goes), people fall asleep on the street. Cover with the sky and the floor or board as the bed.
There are also people who use three wheels to pull goods that are three or four times larger than their own size.
Many of the living environments of workers are difficult to call comfortable. Standing in the doorway, you can smell the characteristic musty smell formed by the long-term lack of light inside.
Even though the building has been classified as a dangerous house, there are still people living in it.
Under an old house with already mottled walls, the spiritual support of the residents was also found.
Zooming in on the following picture, you can find a god statue that looks like Lao Jun under the window, and melodious religious music comes out from below it.
Before coming to Qingping, a friend once said to me: "You should go to the nearby Shamian Island to see, I think it is a fake Guangzhou." ”
So, after visiting Qingping, I came to Shamian Island.
Shamian Island is only a bridge away from the area where Qingping is located. However, the two banks of the bridge, which is only more than ten meters long, are completely different conditions.
If walking through Qingping Street feels like being stir-fried in a broken iron pot with a bunch of medicinal herbs; then coming to Shamian Island is like incarnating Gatsby and experiencing the glory of Bourgeois in this land.
Lush trees alternate between the wide pavements, mostly of which are neoclassical or neo-Baroque buildings.
For example, the former site of this Asia Fire Oil Company.
In the past, Shamian Island was once a concession of Britain and the United States. The buildings on the island are the ruins of the embassies, companies, residences and other facilities of the time.
And this Tiffany Blue Starbucks, probably the best Starbucks I've ever seen.
And here, it is almost impossible to see the figure of the working people before. Instead, it is more of a "leisure class" who comes with their companions to take pictures.
In the frame of the long gun and short cannon, build a beautiful picture that will receive countless likes on the review site.
Stepping out of the sand, the view seems to be pulled from the hole to the open plain. The characteristic gentle breeze blowing by the river, the towering reinforced concrete on the opposite bank stitches together a picture of a contemporary metropolis.
For a while, people couldn't tell which was the real Guangzhou.
In the past, there was a saying in Laoxiguan, Guangzhou: "You have to be clean and flat and have no worries." ”
623 Road, where Qingping is located, and its surroundings, has been a commercial resort in Guangzhou since ancient times.
Thirteen Lines of Xiguan in 1780 (oil painting)
For many Lao Guang, this area with The Qingping Market as the center is also the bearer of countless green memories.
Turn them open like pages filled with how people interact with places and place their emotions on them.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the reclaimed Shamian Island became a park for citizens.
The spring breeze of reform blew all over the ground, and the old and broad citizens who were fighting for their morale rode the proletarian chariot to erase the imprint left by the iron hooves of imperialism on the cement road.
Shamian Island in the 1980s
The 623 Road on the other side of it, with the evolution of history, under the gradual concentration of the original Chinese medicine halls, finally gave birth to the Qingping Chinese herbal medicine market in 1979.
There are also a number of old brands in the memory of The Old Canton, delicious and delicious, all here.
Qingping Chinese herbal medicine market in 1993
At that time, at the intersection of Qingping Road, there was a dessert shop called "Blue Bird Ice Room".
In some articles about Reminiscences of Childhood, it can be called a happy code from sweet in the mouth to the stomach and then sweet to the heart.
A fruit-flavored snow bar food for 4 cents is enough for the young people to be happy for a few days.
Guangzhou has long had the legend of "Guangzhou's top ten famous chickens", of which the first of the top ten famous chickens, "Qingping Chicken" was also a treasure on the tip of the tongue here, which made countless old food covetous.
"The skin is smooth and the meat is smooth, and the bones are flavorful", which is the highest praise given by Lao Bao to "Qingping Chicken"
Qingping Chicken was born in the Qingping Hotel on Qingping Road, and due to poor management, the parent company of the Qingping Hotel closed down in 2002.
The arcades and various long-established buildings on 623 Road near it were also demolished in 1999 with the construction of the Inner Ring Road by the government, which was the fastest demolition project in the Chinese mainland that year.
The construction site at that time
However, today's Qingping Chinese Herbal Medicine Wholesale Market Building was born precisely because of this project.
It is often said that Guangzhou is a huge wholesale market.
The old Xiguan, where the Qingping Market is located, is undoubtedly a microcosm that can best represent this large wholesale market.
When the skyline gradually rises from the ground gradually erases the differences between cities and cities, the devastated old Xiguan still drags a somewhat mutilated body and carries the heavy history and style of old Guangzhou.
The Qingping Hotel is gone, and the former employees have reopened the Wenji Yixin Chicken to pass on the taste of Qingping Chicken.
Source: "Star Journey"
While watching a play has long been reduced to an antique entertainment method, there are still people around the Qingping Market who insist on a costume shop.
As the foreign tourists mentioned above, if you don't come here, you may never understand the most real side of Guangzhou.
Another example is my friend.
On November this year, a friend from the northeast came to Guangzhou to play. After a long day of shopping in Tianhe District, he has always liked to take pictures, but he did not press the shutter several times -
Basically, other cities have it, and there is nothing to photograph.
The next day, I recommended him to the Qingping Chinese Herbal Medicine Market. Sure enough, that kind of wild photo began to emerge again.
There is no end to it.