Little Villages

I wandered around a new part of the city with a Chinese friend today. We spent bit of the time wandering through one of the "little villages". I'm still not sure if that's a Chinese term for them or a foreign one that got picked up by the English speakers around here, but the description really fits. Little villages are these mazes of back-alley markets. They're filled with everything that makes a stereotypical Chinese market street a stereotypical Chinese market street.

On one side of the street is a China Mobile next to a sock shop and a noodle place, and on the other side is a net bar a cheap restaurant, and a fresh fruit stand. You can't see it, but somewhere down the street someone is selling stinky tofu and none of the Chinese people seem to pay attention to the smell. At one corner, a guy is shaving the outer layer off a piece of sugar cane that's as tall as he is. He's talking to his friend who's pealing a pineapple with a special knife so it gets a nice spiral pattern. A woman on the other side is making caramel candy popsicles in the shape of the zodiac animals. Some people walk by you eating some dumplings, but you don't know where they got them. There are probably at least three places in the area that sell them. You have to dodge out of the way of people riding bikes or electric scooters. A car might drive by on one of the bigger parts, how they have room to push through is a miracle to say the least. The roads are dirty, and there's a small pile of garbage on fire in the corner, but the smell of food is stronger so it's not that noticeable. Every once in a while you pass some guys playing cards or a group of people crowded around two old men playing a kind of Chinese chess. The rest of the street is filled with people shopping or just heading home. Girls in high heeled boots and skirts (and stockings since it's cold out.) will walk past men wearing suits and nobody seems feel out of place at all.

I love the little villages. They're easy to find. In some areas, you can't go more than three or four blocks without going past one. I live in the Gaoxin, high tech, part of Xi'an, so I'm mostly surrounded by tall buildings and offices, but even here is a little village.  And I love it.