I love this place!

Muxiyuan Market revisited.

I think as long as I live in China I will not tire of exploring this market.  I have gone here four times now twice with friends, twice alone.  They have everything you can imagine needing for a sewing project and things you never imagined.  I don't know what time it officially opens but the last two times I have gone I got there by about 9:00 and it didn't seem too busy yet.....perhaps all the others had been and gone, buying things for their shops and businesses.  I think I read somewhere that it covers an area of about 6 acres....it is possible.  One of the best things is that in this giant place I am recognized when I return to a shop and they are genuinely happy to see me....of course I am usually spending money!  I have gotten lost in a new area every time I have gone there.  Never had so much fun being lost as I have here.

The first time I went I picked up some yarn.  Now this is not the Yarn Market, known as Wool Spinning City, more on that later, it is a fabric market but it certainly holds what ever you need for what ever you plan to do.  I should have foreseen  Olivia would love this yarn and purchased sufficient quantities to complete the projects.....hind sight is 20-20 right?  Of course my failure to think it through to completion necessitated some of the repeat trips.  I was so sad to have to go again.  This is 100% wool yarn that costs about three dollars a skein!

This is cotton batting, each large bag holds ten or twelve individual batts.  I bought one to see what they were like and to try to quilt with.  They are strange and come apart so easily I am not sure I can do much with it besides use it for stuffing.  It is soft, soft but comes apart as I try to open it up.  Maybe it is what the old cotton batting was like that had to be quilted an inch apart....Oh, that is so not going to happen with me.

This is a window like several other windows full of woven label strips. (up above is just a more distant shot of the same window.)  Where there is one store/stall/shop for a particular type of item there are twenty.  You can bargain here but I think you need to buy in a bigger quantity than I would ever do.  The prices are so low I don't feel I have to bargain, maybe the native Chinese do.  I know a woman from New Zealand that has started a business making womens clothing and she shops here for all her fabric.  She has a small shop right near Olivia's school.  If you come to visit I will take you there:)

In these windows you see spools of ribbon.  Any one in need?  On the table, different weights of string spools.  Store after store.  I have no idea what is in the green bundles, probably more string.  All the stores seem to get their items wrapped in this green stuff.

Another shot of a batting pile.
Some of the areas are under a roof some are not.  If you could see above in the left of the picture you should see a roof.....they drive,bike and park any where their vehicles fit....you have to keep your ears open so you don't get run over by a scooter.....they go wayyyy faster than they should.

There was even a chicken at the market.  Someones lunch?  Providing lunch for someone?  Behind the chicken is polyester batting...a different area and shops from the cotton! 

One of a gazillion lanes, batting, fabric........

There are stacks and stacks of this type fabric.  It is very wide...I think they use it to make bed coverings.  It has design repeats that are sometimes the size of the bed or just all over prints.  It is cotton, but too heavy for me to quilt with.  I know there are twenty million people living in Beijing and China is the most populous country in the world but I sometimes have difficulty wrapping my head around the fact that they can use this much stuff!



I will go back....this is not the last you have seen of the place:)

Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona