Beijing Says Goodbye to Longfusi Morning Market After 20 Years of Service
There’s a saying that the best way to experience local culture is to visit the local market and try local food. Well, unlike our happiness upon hearing that Wangfujing's Donghuamen Night Market is to close at the end of this month – a market that neither promoted local culture or local food – we and Dongcheng residents are sad to hear that yesterday (Jun 12), Longfusi Morning Market, located near Dongsi Station, opened for the very last time. As to be expected, it was even more crowded than usual.
The Morning Market, located 300 meters along Longfusi Jie, was always flooded with fruit and vegetable vendors, with customers traveling in from across the city. As Sina reports, prices at Longfusi were on the whole cheaper than at normal markets and a strong community had developed around the area with customers and vendors becoming friends.
At its peak, there were 700 vendors on the street, both legal and illegal. The reason for shutting the market down (or at least the one given) was that Dongcheng District authorities were continually annoyed by the large amounts of garbage left behind each day. The entire area will now allegedly be upgraded: to make it an example as an “area of Beijing culture and creative development,” as Xinhuanet reports, a saddening statement and one that often hints to the building or renovation of a space into a sanitized shopping center, null of life.
By 8.30am, Longfusi Morning Market was officially closed, and the cleaners began to tidy up the waste, marking the end of an era for locals, and one more market taken away from Beijingers. That also means that we're one step closer to having to travel out to Hebei to buy anything that's not Gucci.
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