Digging out ancient treasures

By Xie Fang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-08 09:22

A Ming-style chair at the Lujiaying antique market. Photos by Xie Fang

Shopkeepers can usually tell the item's geographical origins and rough age but if they can't, you have to use your own judgment.

Gaobeidian's prices tend to be lower than those in Panjiayuan but you can often bargain 20 per cent off from the listed price. What's more, the further you go into the street, the cheaper the prices get.

One thing should be pointed out. Once the item is yours, especially if it is a woodcarving, you will need to clean it yourself. It's a painstaking job but it's great fun to see how the antique gradually reveals its original beauty.

The street also has some imitation antique furniture shops, offering more options for buyers.

One thing the street lacks, though, is a place to eat, drink or take a rest. I even find it difficult to buy a bottle of water.

Lujiaying Antique Market

While some collectors hardly ever visit Panjiayuan, it's different with the ever-popular Lujiaying.

Located in the southeastern outskirts, the market is known among insiders as the "Hebei warehouse".

In the 1980s, many Hebei natives gathered here to repair antique or old furniture before reselling it. As time passed by, it developed into one of the country's top distribution centers of antique furniture, much of it from Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi provinces.

Unlike Gaobeidian, Lujiaying Antique Market (LAM) mainly conducts wholesale business. It attracts not only city distributors, but also film and TV drama production units. The film Red Cliff, for instance, bought several set items here.

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