Food markets in China

Wet markets

Wet markets (菜市场) are the traditional fresh-produce markets in every Chinese neighbourhood. The 'wet' refers to the floor — vendors splash water over the produce and floors continuously to keep things cool and dust-free. A working wet market has:

• Vegetable stalls — seasonal produce, often less photogenic than supermarket but fresher.
• Fruit stalls — separate from vegetables; dried fruit, fresh seasonal fruit, sometimes imported.
• Meat counters — pork (the bulk), beef, chicken, sometimes lamb. Cuts to order.
• Live and butchered seafood — particularly in coastal cities.
• Tofu and bean-product stall.
• Pickle and sauce stall — all kinds of fermented vegetables, sauces, condiments.
• Egg stall — quail, duck, chicken, sometimes goose.
• Spice and dried-good stall.
• Live poultry — increasingly regulated; many cities have moved live poultry to specialised markets only.

Wet markets open early (5:30am) and run to mid-morning. Restaurants and home cooks shop them. Tourists are welcome but typically not the main customers.

Supermarkets

• Domestic chains: Yonghui, Wumart, Carrefour China (since the 2019 sale to Suning, branded differently), CR Vanguard, RT-Mart. Mid-range; cover 80% of needs.
• Imported/expat-friendly: Ole', City Shop, BLT, City'super (HK). 2–3x the price for Western imports.
• Online-first: Hema (Alibaba's modernised supermarket, with delivery within 30 min in city centres), JD Daojia.

Specialty markets

• Tea markets — every major city has a wholesale tea district. Beijing's Maliandao, Shanghai's Tianshan Tea City, Hangzhou's Meijiawu villages.
• Flower markets — large, photogenic. Beijing's Liang Ma Bridge market, Shanghai's Xianjia Flower Market.
• Spice markets — Yiwu (Zhejiang) is the international wholesale capital.
• Seafood markets — Qingdao, Yantai, Xiamen, Zhanjiang have busy seafood centres.
• Antique markets — Beijing's Panjiayuan (weekends only) is the most famous.

Online grocery

Hema (盒马) — Alibaba's modernised supermarket — does 30-minute delivery via app. The flagship Hema stores in tier-1 cities are fascinating to visit: live seafood you point to that becomes lunch in 20 minutes, robotic-conveyor delivery, QR-code-everything.

Etiquette at the wet market

• Cash or mobile payment both accepted at most stalls.
• Vendors quote a price; mild bargaining is acceptable on bigger purchases (whole chickens, large fish, multiple kg of vegetables) but not on a few hundred grams of greens.
• Carry your own bag if possible — most vendors give you a thin plastic bag, which is environmentally bad.
• Vegetables are often sold by jin (斤, half a kilo) — a price 'twenty kuai a jin' means ¥40 per kg.