The market is an exciting place to visit. In addition to some absurd food items that are visually engaging, the constant chatter of buyers and sellers negotiating prices is always entertaining, particularly when the buyers are foreigners who do not speak Mandarin. In the short time that I have spent here, the market has fast become my favorite hangout. Traders are slightly less aggressive than their counterparts in big cities. I have not been accosted, thus far, by the enthusiastic armies of little kids ever ready to sell foreigners their 10-Yuan roses.
General stores are more responsive to changes in the consumer market.
It almost feels strange to be writing about modern technology in an article on life in rural China. China is, after all, a developing country, and access to technology is supposed to be an issue here, at least in the villages and towns away from the big cities. However, technology seems so omnipresent in China. I was taken completely by surprise when a few days ago, on one of my morning jaunts, I spotted a woman from a minority tribe clad in traditional attire, shopping basket strapped to her back, with a cell phone in her hand. Whether mainstream or minority, rich or middle-class, technology must be made accessible to all, and modern China is leading the way in breaking down the barriers to information access in the developing world.