Panjiayuan Ghost Market (潘家园鬼市)

Peking · Kina · Urban site

The Panjiayuan antiques market is heir to the late empire's 'ghost markets'. When the Qing dynasty fell, ruined noblemen and courtiers were forced to sell their ancestors' treasures – but the shame could not bear daylight. Deals were struck in the dark before dawn, when no face could be recognised: buyers and sellers groped between the stalls by flint-spark and lantern light that flickered like will-o'-the-wisps, and when the sun rose everyone was gone. Hence the name: the ghost market. Around it the legends grew – of dealers who bought a treasure from a pale stranger and at dawn found the payment turned to grave money, of stalls that no one else had seen. To this day Panjiayuan opens in the night-dark around four o'clock, and old collectors say, half in earnest, that you should look the seller in the eyes – in case he has any.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Panjiayuan Ghost Market (潘家园鬼市)?

Panjiayuan Ghost Market (潘家园鬼市) ligger i Peking, Kina.

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