The market opens only on weekends and operates in a wide-open space, with shops and ground stalls co-existing. On average, some 40,000 to 50,000 people wander through the market every day it's open, burrowing through millions of trinkets with their deft hands and meticulous eyes. The market's annual trade value can reach up to hundreds of millions of yuan. Panjiayuan is a Mecca for collectors, and many foreign tourists can be seen browsing around in the market, searching for the perfect souvenir to bring back home. this means that most of the peddlers here can bargain in English. Even Hilary Clinton paid a trip here during her husband's formal visit to China in 1998.
 Frequent visitors to the market normally arm themselves with a torch before going there. This habit usually belongs to the most hardcore group of visitors. The reason they bring one? So they can have a detailed look at the items atĄ4am, when the market opens! Wondering why the market opens so early? Here it goes: tracing back in history, there was a market called the "Ghost Market" which had it origin during the late Qing Dynasty. Then the families of some aristocrats fell on hard times and in order to make a living, they had to sell off some of their valuable things. However, as such actions were perceived as being shameful, they preferred to bring their goods to the market at around 3 to 4 in the morning. At the same time, people with dubiously acquired items also found this was an ideal time for them to get such goods off
their hands. Thus came the "Ghost Market". And the "Panjiayuan" was originally quite similar.
At Panjiayuan, stories abound that people who bought an article for a low price later found out that it was worth a fortune. One person bought a sword for 15 yuan, and sold it for 150,000 yuan; another one bought a plate for 300 yuan, and it turned out to be worth of 370,000 yuan. Legends like these drum up a significant amount of business for the peddlers, but let the buyer beware, there is also a good deal of Fool's Gold lying around!
(text from South Weekend / edited and translated by Zhang / photos from sinophoto.51.net & jsdj.com)
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