A Lijiang market 1

I'm always afraid when I go anywhere that I'll find things are so modern and the old authentic life is gone. It was the same feeling when I visited old town Lijiang. They have completely rebuilt this old town and everything is so commercialized. I was afraid that there won't be anything but souvenir shops. To my great surprise, I was wrong, I found on the edge of old town, the old market where the regular folks shop. It was a bustling place. Next to it is a stand for mini vans, these take the farmers from the villages and take them home. The farmers bring their produce and sell it to middle people who actually man these stalls in the market. These middle people in turn sell the produce to the residents. As usual there is lots of stuff. Food is plentiful in this part of China. Markets are always so much fun to see. I didn't see any tourists here. Maybe they think it dirty and therefore don't find such places worth their while to visit. They prefer the restaurants and the souvenir shops. Mind you, most of the tourists are from other parts of China, usually from Hong Kong and the South which has become much more affluent in recent days. Who wants to look at a dirty market. I do, the messier the better. They're more authentic.

I'm going through my pictures and I have a lot to show for from this trip. I was kind of hard pressed for pictures from my trip to Cairo. There is so much to photograph in China. People are much nicer and they let you photograph them though they don't understand why you would find them interesting enough to be photographed.