Thursday, January 6, 2011

Black Market Tiger

Yesterday afternoon I went with some friends to the Lotus Market, in northern Chengdu. Most of the market was just blocks and blocks of stuff--a good place to go if you want to get a sense of what it really means to be in the manufacturing capital of the world. There were large buildings filled with mazes of shops selling everything--clothes, cloth, scarves, jewelry, toys, toothbrushes, uniforms, wool, lanterns--individually and in bulk. I walked away from my friends at one point, got lost, and had to use my cell phone to Marco Polo my way back. The aisles of the market, the sidewalks and the streets were filled with boxes. It seemed like every other vehicle going by was a truck delivering more boxes of stuff. So much stuff!

Along one street was a row of Tibetan women (at least, they were dressed like Tibetan women) selling jewelry and rare, (mostly illegal) animal products. Since I've been writing about the illegal animal trade for my research, I was really excited to see it for myself. I wanted to take a photo, but I suspected the woman would get mad if I did. I took it anyway, and she did get mad, so I walked away. I went over to another woman with similar products. I asked her what animal the paw was from, and she said (in Chinese) tiger. The things beside the tiger paw are tiger penis. I can't recognize some of the other things--but the insects in the basket are 冬虫夏草 (caterpillar fungus), which are used in Traditional Chinese (and Tibetan) Medicine and also eaten as a delicacy.

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