More Guangzhou pics

Well I'm back from my brief holiday in China (still in China, just back to the work week!) I had a lovely 6 days off and spent my time in Ping'an and Yangshuo. However, there are still Guangzhou pics from last week yet to cover, so it will be another day or two before I can tempt anyone with Pictures of the Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces or the Famous (in Ping'an) Long Haired Ladies of the Zhuang Minority. Besides pics, I have plenty of stories. For now though, we are back to last Sunday's Qing Ping Market pics.

On the subject of Minority tribes in China, I believe that the people at the front of the market came in from smaller places outside of Guangzhou to sell their specilialties. Their specialties were apparently things for Chinese medicine, although what secret ailment they cure or what type of vitality they provide was certainly anyone's gues...

There were horns from a variety of animals, claws, entire feet potentially from bear or tiger. This woman was deep in thought and didn't notice me snapping her picture. (The 28-300mm lense helps too...). I don't know what kind of claw it was, but in much the same way someone absentmindedly chews their fingernail or twirls their hair, this woman was rubbing the claw on her chin. It was exceptionally smooth as I have seen these women (and men) sitting for hours rubbing at the claws to make them shine. I think the shinier the claw, the more appealing it is to the customer. Seems like very good quality if it's shiny...

These were pressed "pancakes" of chrysanthemum flowers for tea. It appeared that they washed them and then pressed them into discs to sell at the market. It's hard to imagine a "flower pancake" but I couldn't think of another way to describe it. They were quite pretty to look at. (Certainly nicer than the bag of dead ants...!)
This little boy was helping his parents to scoop up some type of root or wood they were chopping. This apparently too is some sort of medicine or perhaps an ingredient for a soup- they were chopping it up and he was helping to scoop it up and put it in a big bag.
I had to snap this pic when I saw this guy walking down the street. I really was instantly transported back to Litang for a moment when I realized he was carrying animal pelts. Tiger, wild cat, I'm not sure exactly what they were. 3 years ago I took a 1 month trip around Sichuan & Yunnan China- this one town was called Litang and it was absolutely the wild west of China. The men came down from the mountains to sell their pelts & you could actually see them laying yak pelts on the street to dry or to try and sell. There were entire yak heads in the market from the Yak they had likely led to Market, but was sold piece by piece to many people during the day. There were no Yak heads in my day last Sunday (or my entire trip for that matter) but seeing this guy with the pelts made me remember that little town...
Too sweet to resist. When a little one's got to eat, he's got to eat...
Even though the market has a "main" area, you can find people just setting up shop wherever there is a free space. You have to pay to be in the building, I doubt you have to pay to grab a spot on the street & lay out your bags of goods to sell.
Stay tuned for more pics. I have a lot of pics from Ping'an and Yangshuo to sift through, so I'll get them on as soon as I can. There will be a few more Guangzhou pics tomorrow though.