Panjiayuan is a truly bizarre bazaar where vivacious vendors wheel and deal caboodles of curios.

Nearly any knickknack and bric-a-brac ever made in the Middle Kingdom can be found here. The jumbles of junk that pack these stalls often prove to be treasure troves for those willing to sift through the detritus of the Dirt Market.

Certainly, Panjiayuan is Beijing's biggest bazaar. More than 3,000 stands spangled with bangles span a landscape larger than several adjacent football fields. Like Beijing itself, the market is divided into districts according to the type of wares or region from which the goods originate, simplifying the process of price comparison.

Antiquarians can dig for yester-century's treasures among the central stalls, or they can peruse the fantastic farrago in the recently constructed buildings lining the marketplace's perimeter.

These edifices offer a bounty of bauble, including traditional furnishings, outdated military gear and grand gramophones.

But buyers beware; most of the available antiques are actually recent replicas. And while foreign faces entice hucksters to howl out three-digit prices, few goods here are worth more than 100 yuan. Those hoping to nab the real deals need an eye for echt antiques - or at least a companion who can figure out which are just poised as real McCoys.

Surely, the peddlers that populate this second-hand souk are often at least as fascinating as the wares they push. Many are obviously from out of town and do business clad in colorful minority attire. Their stalls usually proffer the oddest of oddments, such as peculiar pelts, disembodied animal extremities and full suits of Mongolian armor.

Unfortunately for antique aficionados, the market only opens on weekends and closes at 5pm sharp. So, logically, the best time to drive the hardest bargains is around 4:40, when shoppers can get the most kapow for their kuai.

But while this mlange of mingle-mangle proffers many a unique antique, most shoppers find that the manic market atmosphere is the best offering of this Beijing bazaar.

(China Daily 05/30/2007 page5)