Chengdu Markets and Sichuan Museum

May 23, 2012China 2012antiques, art, artist, Chengdu, china, farmers market, food, museum, open air market, public market, sichuan, stone carving, wet market Gallery

We visit the Lian Hua Xiaoqu Open Air Market, which I featured on Scenes from a Public Market. Often called Wet Markets recently, these are more commonly referred to around the world as “Open Air Markets.” This particular one, open daily, is a mix of wet and dry goods, much of which comes from Sichuanese farmers, fishermen, and cooks.

It’s a constant challenge not getting hit by a car in China. Every time I walk around, I’m dodging cars and small trucks.

Commerce extends a few streets outside the market building.

A wine and herb store

Fresh ground Sichuan chili peppers

Black Chicken

We stop at a restaurant near the market to grab lunch. For some reason we ate more of that odd black chicken. This was chicken comb soup.

Wonton soup

Beef noodles

Back to the market

Song Xian Qiao Antique and Art Market

The market was rows upon rows of small booths, plus several building of stalls, all stuffed with antiques and probably really good knockoffs. The most common items were old coins, old bills, pottery ,and stone carvings. The main building has a floor dedicated to painters. Each had their own room, cramped and stuffed with original art in the traditional style. Many were painting away in a corner. It was astounding. (I did not photograph their original art, but here are some scenes from around the building).

The market building has at least 100 rooms, each of the 2nd floor houses an artist and their works. Bottom floor rooms are typically art or antique shops.

I didn’t take too many photos here because there weren’t many customers as distractions and all the vendors, mostly old men, were watching me like hawks.

Vases… taller than me, which isn’t saying much.

The bridge along the river at the market had some amazing old stone carvings.

Sichuan Museum

I visited the Museum of Sichuan and I wish I had more time there. They did a wonderful job of highlighting the minority cultures in Sichuan province, their costumes, art, pottery, and tools. Religion was covered more in the sense of showing Buddhist statues and describing the deities’ name and role. Tibetan Buddhism has so many deities that they had walls dedicated to their statues.

Mostly everything had well-written English Translations. It was a real pleasure to explore this museum.

The history of Chengdu, and Sichuan as a hole was covered, and the modern history was covered is all its black, white, and red glory.

Courtyard outside of the museum, looking towards the antique market.

Cold Pot

Served cold, a huge pot of oil… which I witness being reused… and sure has been reused for days… is stuffed with skewers of cold meats, veggies and seafood. I wasn’t a huge fan of this at all and just assumed I would get sick from it. I didn’t. It wasn’t that bad. I’m just not a fan of cold meals. The traditional Sichuan noodles and dumplings saved the meal for me.