This is one of my favorite photographs taken in China. You can see a slide show of all the photos here. As the picture suggests, she could not have been more ambivalent to my presence, and I could not have been more interested in her after school job. I took it in the biggest street market in the city of Guangzhou, called the Qingping Market. The market was more of an attraction than a shopping destination, for me. It's an understatement to say that the exotic can be found here. The Chinese medicine section had a selection of all sorts of roots and herbs, and also dried animal parts that they believe to be medicinal. After that section, you encounter a menagerie. Live animals — ones you might expect (eg chickens and rabbits) to the not-so-usual (eg turtles, snakes, monkeys and insects) — are sold and sometimes slaughtered right on the spot. This meat market was morbidly fascinating to me, being used to purchasing meat packed and frozen from the supermarket. I got to see a turtle being "packaged." It is not for people with weak stomachs, but it was an experience I am not likely to get anywhere else.
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