Food markets in China

Wet markets — China's food infrastructure

Wet markets (菜市场, càishìchǎng — 'vegetable market') are the backbone of Chinese food retail. Despite the growth of supermarkets and online grocery, most Chinese home cooking still sources fresh produce from wet markets: fresher stock, lower prices, and the ability to buy in small quantities.

The 'wet' in wet market refers to the floor — vendors splash water continuously over produce and seafood to maintain freshness and temperature, and the floor stays wet from this process. They are generally cleaner and more orderly than visitors from countries without the tradition expect, particularly the covered indoor markets in larger cities.

Structure of a working wet market:

• Vegetable section (蔬菜区): the bulk of the floor space. Produce is seasonal, local, and often harvested within 24–48 hours. The variety exceeds most Western supermarkets: multiple types of Chinese greens (choy sum, kai lan, Shanghai bok choy, amaranth, water spinach), lotus root, taro, bamboo shoots, fresh water chestnuts, bitter melon, winter melon, dozens of mushroom varieties.
• Fruit section (水果区): typically separate from vegetables. Fresh seasonal fruit (lychee, longans, rambutan, persimmon, jujubes, Asian pear, pomelo), dried fruit, preserved fruit.
• Meat counters (肉类区): pork dominates — whole slabs hanging, cuts ordered and butchered to request. Beef is secondary. Chicken is available butchered or sometimes as live birds in the adjacent poultry section (where permitted).
• Seafood (海鲜区): in coastal cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao), this is the most impressive section — live fish and shellfish in tanks, fresh catch from the morning's market, dried and preserved seafood. Inland cities have smaller seafood sections with fresh freshwater fish (carp, catfish, eel).
• Tofu and bean products (豆制品区): fresh tofu in multiple forms (silken, firm, extra-firm, fried, smoked), fermented tofu, fresh soy milk, yuba (bean curd skin).
• Eggs (鸡蛋区): chicken eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs, preserved eggs (皮蛋, pídàn — the 'century eggs' with green-black yolk), salted duck eggs.
• Pickle and condiment stall (腌菜区): kimchi-adjacent preserved vegetables, pickled mustard greens (雪菜), Sichuan pickled chillies, doubanjiang, all kinds of fermented bean pastes. These stalls are miniature ingredient libraries.
• Spice and dried-good stall (干货区): star anise, dried Sichuan peppercorn, dried mushrooms, dried wood ear, dried lily buds, wolfberries, dried longan.
• Herb section (in southern China): fresh herbs — coriander, Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, perilla, lemongrass — particularly in Yunnan, Guangdong, and near the southern borders.

Hours: wet markets open early — 5:30–6am — and the freshest produce is sold by 9–10am. Most close or significantly reduce in the early afternoon. Some have an evening session.

Who shops there: restaurant buyers, home cooks, catering kitchens. Tourists are welcome but are not the main customer. Vendors are accustomed to pointing and counting without language — show what you want, hold up fingers for quantity, or hand the vendor a phone with numbers written.

Supermarkets for everyday shopping

**Domestic chains**: - **Yonghui** (永辉超市): fresh produce focus; strong for meat and fish; nationwide. - **CR Vanguard** (华润万家): quality mid-range supermarket; common in residential areas. - **RT-Mart** (大润发): Auchan-joint-venture hypermarket; large format, comprehensive, standard prices. - **Wumart** (物美): Beijing-based mid-range chain.

**For imported goods** (important for expats): - **Ole' Supermarket** (部分 Ole'): Vanke-operated upmarket supermarket; good imported range, especially European cheese, butter, wine, Western snacks. - **City Shop** (城市超市): Shanghai's upmarket import supermarket; French Concession and other locations. - **Hema** (盒马鲜生): see below. - **Sam's Club** (山姆会员店): Walmart's membership warehouse chain; strong imported goods, large format, ¥260/year membership. Online ordering included. - **Costco**: opened in Shanghai and Shenzhen; same wholesale model as Western markets. Available to foreign credit/debit cards. - **City'super** (City'super): Hong Kong upmarket supermarket chain; for reference.

Price uplift for imports: expect 2–3x the price for European or American branded goods compared to similar items in their home country.

Hema (盒马鲜生) — Alibaba's online-physical hybrid

Hema is Alibaba's answer to the question: what if a supermarket, a restaurant, and a 30-minute delivery service were the same place? The physical stores (in tier-1 and larger tier-2 cities) have:

• Live seafood tanks where you point to a fish or shellfish and it is cooked on-site within 20 minutes.
• Fresh-cut sashimi.
• Robotic conveyor belts delivering bags overhead.
• Everything priced and scanned with QR codes.
• A 3km delivery radius with 30-minute delivery.

The Hema app (Alipay login required) delivers groceries for app orders. Product range covers imported goods, fresh produce, meat, and dairy. The physical stores are worth visiting as a food-tourism experience in their own right, regardless of whether you buy anything.

Specialty food markets

**Tea markets**: every major city has a wholesale tea district. - Beijing: Maliandao Tea Street (马连道茶叶一条街, Xuanwu District) — hundreds of tea shops selling every category at wholesale and retail prices. - Shanghai: Tianshan Tea City (天山茶城, Changning District). - Hangzhou: Meijiawu village (梅家坞) near West Lake — Longjing tea direct from farms. - Guangzhou: Fangcun Tea Market (芳村茶叶市场) — one of China's largest wholesale tea trading centres.

**Seafood markets**: - Qingdao: Shilaoren Seafood Market; Yellow Sea catch. - Shanghai: Tongchuan Road Seafood Market (铜川路水产市场) — early morning wholesale. - Guangzhou: Huang Sha Aquatic Products Market (黄沙水产市场) — one of the largest fresh seafood markets in the country. - Xiamen: the fish market near the ferry terminal; Fujian seafood specialities.

Wholesale spice and dried goods: Yiwu (义乌, Zhejiang) is the world's largest small-commodity wholesale market, including dried food, spices, and packaging. Of interest as an experience; not convenient for individual food purchases.

Night food markets (夜市): Xi'an's Muslim Quarter, Chengdu's Jinli Street, Wuhan's Hubu Alley, Hong Kong's Temple Street — covered in the street food guide.

Market etiquette

Payment: both cash and mobile payment (WeChat Pay, Alipay) are accepted at most stalls. Cash in small denominations is useful for individual produce purchases.

Bargaining: at fresh produce stalls, mild price discussion is acceptable for larger purchases (a whole chicken, a kilo of live shrimp) but not for small quantities of vegetables. The price posted is the starting price, not inflated for tourists.

Bring a bag: plastic bags are provided but the environmental logic of bringing your own is the same as anywhere.

Units: vegetables and fruit are sold by jin (斤, 500g) or gongjin (公斤, kilogram). A sign saying '10元/斤' means ¥10 per 500g = ¥20 per kg. Some stalls use scales and let you pick produce freely; others weigh from their own stock.

Live seafood: if buying live fish or shellfish for cooking, the market vendor will kill and prepare the fish at the stall if asked (说杀鱼 — 'kill the fish').

Antique and curio markets

Antique markets (古玩市场) occupy a different register from food and wet markets. Major cities each have a designated antique market district:

• Beijing: Panjiayuan Flea Market (潘家园旧货市场, Chaoyang) — open weekends 4am–6pm; over 3,000 stalls selling ceramics, old furniture, Cultural Revolution memorabilia, coins, bronzes, calligraphy, and openly fake antiquities. Arrival at dawn gets the widest selection. Liulichang (琉璃厂) cultural street in Xuanwu is the more curated, higher-price alternative.
• Shanghai: Dongtai Road Antique Market (东台路古玩街, Huangpu) is the central venue — tourist-oriented but still useful for decorative pieces and Cultural Revolution items.
• Guangzhou: the Datong Road antique district and the Xiguan area have a mix of antique furniture, jade, and porcelain.
• Suzhou: the Guanqian Street area has antique shops dealing in classical Chinese furniture and ceramic ware.

The rule at all Chinese antique markets: there are no certificates of authenticity. Anything described as Ming or Qing dynasty at open-market prices is almost certainly a reproduction. The enjoyment is in the browsing, not in expecting museum-grade authentication. Bargaining is universal; starting at 30–40% of the asking price is standard.

Night markets as an experience

Night markets (夜市) are simultaneously food markets and social spaces. The rhythm in most Chinese cities: street-food stalls and mobile vendors set up from around 5:30pm, peak from 7–10pm, and wind down by midnight. In tourist-oriented areas (Xi'an Muslim Quarter, Chengdu's Jinli Street), the commercial activity extends longer and the composition shifts toward snack-and-souvenir rather than raw produce.

The difference between a local night market and a tourist night market is visible in who is buying: a local night market has residential shoppers buying ingredients and household goods alongside food stalls; a tourist night market has trinket stalls, novelty food performances, and prices adjusted accordingly. In cities that have both (Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan), visiting the residential version first gives a baseline for what the food should cost.