We strolled past the Bai artifact dealers, along the walled lane hung with local indigo tie dye and into the main market area which sets up outside the back walls of the town. The market is sandwiched between the river that drains into Erhai Lake and the marble quarries. Whole families trek across the bridge balancing baskets of produce including tiny lavender eggplants, emerald green bok choy, solid kohlrabies and clusters of green onions. Small trucks with their exposed diesel engines unloaded people and livestock. A pink scrubbed pig and five piglets arrived in a wheelbarrow.
Chickens come poised precariously in wide covered baskets on the backs of bicycles.
Every type of merchandise has its own section sprawled out over the barren rocky hillside. There was a young man selling locally forged scissors and knives. The shoe repair woman skillfully pedaled her treadle sewing machine. The traveling dentist extracted teeth using a foot powered drill. Next to him on a small table were platters full of a varied assortment of replacement teeth, real ones, not porcelain.