The rural Guangxi: Farmers Market

 

Some of the best photographic opportunities come unexpectedly. After a brilliant sunrise at XiangGong Hill, the guide asked us if we mind an hour break in a small village close by. Him and the driver were willing to have a breakfast and he offered us to either joined them or have a walk in the local farmers market. Being Sunday people were gathered from surroundings to sell all kind of merchandise, fruits, vegetables, meat, live animals and various snacks.


We decided right away to use this opportunity to explore something that we could not have a chance otherwise; normally a farmers market in a touristic brochure is a place crowded with tourists, selling overpriced merchandise, together with souvenirs. So seing a genuine local farmers market seemed like a great opportunity. The guide told us that people might get annoyed by us taking their pictures; and that we should take good care of our belongings. We experiences the local ‘dangers’ few minutes later: a totally full bottle of water felt of the backpack, rolling down the street; one old guy blessed his luck and picked it up. Two yuan went down the drain 😀


Apart from this funny incident, the reality was quite different. The people were mostly curious, staring at us and sometimes even pointing at us and laughing. Not sure if they ever seen foreigners in their lives until then; so it was probably something out of the ordinary and they were enjoying a small variety in the daily routines. And they were not camera shy, they didn’t hide or turned their heads. We moved around, watching and photographing, getting a glimpse of rural life of China, unstaged and unspoiled.


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