Wholesale clothing markets

I was busy trying out the video on the camera & I didn't get any stills (these are the best of the 1st shots from the videos). I've cobbled together a HOME MOVIE with the clips, but I haven't quite worked out how to show it off to the world, yet. Give me time.

Anyway, these stills don't really catch the feeling of this place. This street runs down between the Wan Tong retail & wholesale markets and the I-have-no-idea shoe market. These are the markets I but stuff at - not that there aren't plenty of other markets but I'm not sure there is enough time for me to become an expert in these places. So for now, anyway, these are they. There are more people here than you could possibly work out what to do with. Ok, there are more people in Indian markets. But so what?
There are also belt markets and watch markets and cuff link markets and wallet markets and probably earring markets and underwear markets, as well as underground markets, handbag markets, just stuff markets everywhere. And there are the people selling stuff, making stuff, buying stuff wholesale, buying it retail, carrying the stuff from one place to another, looking at stuff, feeding the people doing stuff with the stuff, and other people watching the stuff happening.

Somehow these three photgraphs don't seem to have the right amount of stuff in them. Hence the still not available video, which will give you a bit better idea.


What really interests me about this place, and all the other markets, is that they are a kind of education in economics and commerce. For a start, imagine that you can see the entire fashion industry of Australia - 20 million people - in one place. You start to get an idea that there's a lot going on behind the boutiques that you don't see. Then you realise that actually, in Guangzhou you are looking at the fashion industry of Australia, plus a large chunk of the rest of the developed world, and it's a bit headspinning. I find myself wanting to look at some statistics - how many people? How many pairs of jeans/shoes/ear rings/etc/etc to which parts of the world? What's it all worth? It's also a bit of a grim confession, but having been here in 1990, and comparing it with now, I have to confess that I am developing a lot of respect for the free market economists. Here, now, you can see it & it might be a bit intimidating - although I guess if you know your business it isn't - but it's undeniably a better way.

The other thing that strikes me, is that actually, this is the history of Gunagzhou. It has been the intersection of China with the rest of the world, and the intersection of Chinese trade with the rest of the world for a long time. Not the only intersection, as there were the silk roads, but absolutely the maritime intersection. It was the frustration of only being able to do business in Guangzhou that drove the British into some of their least savoury post-colonial manouvres. And there has been trade between Canton and South East Asia for at least 2000 years. The Arabs knew Canton in the 8th century. The Chinese from Canton were trading with India along the coastal routes at least 1400 years ago. So when I stand in Beijing and look at a heavily restored 18th century palace, I'm not sure that perhaps I'm seeing as much history as I do standing outside a market in Guangzhou. That market, barring minor interruptions, has been in continuous existence since BCE.

It's a thrill to hold a Byzantine coin and feel that you are directly connected to something 1200 years old. But that coin is dead. If you buy something in the markets of Guangzhou you can participate in something 200o years old. It's not an artefact. It's special.