The Plant and Flower Market
The Shantou Plant and Flower Market is a pretty cool place — both literally and figuratively — to stop by and get a few green things to brighten up your apartment, if you are so inclined.
Mostly, I was impressed that I could get five or six good-sized plants for about 120 kuai.
Most of these plants were unrecognizable to me, except for one which may be some variety of fern.
The market — Huamu Shichang, I believe, in Chinese — is off to the right of the last roundabout as you drive out toward the airport. It is on a long street that is called (please double check my Pinyin, this is from memory) Hengshan Lu. Actually, I’ve heard there is at least one more such market on this street.
The market itself is a huge outdoor space, the size of a football field at least. A rough, eyeball estimate would put the number of shops there at 30 or so. All selling, more or less, identical plants. This is a feature of business life here I find fascinating and really difficult to understand. You have got the street where people sell indentical-looking, identically-priced mattresses. You have got the street where all the artists are, selling paintings that are more or less the same as the paintings of their neighbor. You have got the plant and flower market. How do these businesses successfully compete against one another?
In any case, if you are not particulary interested in purchasing plants but need a cool respite from the hot weather, I would still recommend the market. Two thumbs up on being a relaxing place, where even shop owners have a mellow approach.
ZhongYuan posted on September 13th, 2007 under: Business in ST, Fun place, Living in ST | Tag: No Tags |
I have never been there before. My memory of buying plants in Shantou is when it was new year, families buy flowers and orange plants for welcoming the new year with good luck. I’m sure when it closes to the new year, that place must be packed!
A thought on markets like this though. I asked my dad before, as I was like you, can’t understand the business want to gather in one place where it’s so competitive. The answer was, ‘because people know where to go when they want to buy certain things’. Thus, we have computer town (电脑城), electronic market (电器市场) etc. I hung out a lot in the computer town every time I went back. From my observation, most of them are closely linked together. When you ask for a quote, they will call to other shops to ask for price and stock. This really puzzled me a lot, how did they make business? Maybe that’s worth exploring.
Anyway, thanks for sharing this market. It would be great if you can have some photos. Send them over to my email and I will update them here.
i never notice that place before….
I just knew some small plants and flowers markets near the old city(小公园) and HaiBing Lu（海滨路）…（i couldn’t remember the exactly place…）
but it’s sound like a great place to enjoy the green plant and the colourful flowers~~
John, I think you Pinyin of the road’s is right, HengShan Lu, in Chinese is 横山路.
hum, it’s no pic of this market on the net, even the HengShan Street, when I searched just now….