SALES BLOSSOM AT LAKESIDE LOTUS MARKET

Locals line up to make prized purchases at 'secret site' in Hangzhou

It was 7:25 on a Friday morning, too early for the crowds of tourists who flock daily to the banks, bridges and pagodas of West Lake in Hangzhou.

But as the summer heat rose at the UNESCO World Heritage site in the Zhejiang provincial capital, a fully laden sampan appeared on the motionless water, bobbing toward the lake's northern bank.