Open-air markets decline amid development shift

Buyers see drop in number of Beijing venues

It was past midnight when 22-year-old Kang Zexin left the Daliushu Ghost Market with her purchases.

During her three-hour visit, Kang bought a silver ring with a pattern promising a blessing, a vintage porcelain horse, a dozen calendars from the 1970s and '80s, a pocket calendar with musical emblems on the cover and a ticket, issued in the 1990s, to visit Zhongnanhai, headquarters of the Communist Party of China.