Manzhouli's Cabbage Bazaar

One day while walking through Manzhouli, I stumbled upon an outdoor bazaar. Like most markets in China, this was a vibrant place, with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables for sale. It was also crowded, with hordes of people and vehicles jockeying for position in the street. I love walking through bazaars; they give me a sense of day-to-day existence in faraway places. Cultural differences can put up barriers between me and the local people, but markets also help me connect me with others in this shared journey through life.

Here are a few photos I took in the Mazhouli market. Do they give you a sense of daily life in Inner Mongolia? Do you see any similarities to your hometown?

Manzhouli is a small city, near the tripartite border between Mongolia, Russia and China.

Nearby are the vast grasslands of the Eurasian steppe.

In the city, there is a bustling market.

Some motorcycle owners sell their wares directly from their vehicles.

Others try to force their vehicles through the large crowd.

Even this far north, oranges are aplenty.

And there are a wide variety of vegetables.

You can even buy live animals, like chickens...

...or bunnies.

And of course there are plenty of dead animals for sale.

One man sells chestnuts.

Nearby, another man sells walnuts.

But in the fall, the biggest item at the market is cabbage.

Piles of cabbage.

Sometimes the leaves are sold individually.

But usually the heads are kept whole and laid out to dry.

It's cold this time of year. Scarves and winter coats are coming out.

But as long as the goods get sold...

...and the money comes in, everybody's happy.

More photos from the Manzhouli market