Shuangta Market: The revolution of food market in China
In a riverside venue in Suzhou with sensational views of the city’s canals and thousand-year-old temples, there was a market called Shuangta. It covers nearly 2000 square meters of capacious space, with its broad aisles, polished tile floor, and clear layout. The interior decoration of the market has retained many old Suzhou elements, such as rice wine tanks, bamboo baskets, agricultural tools, and paper lanterns. People come here for fresh ingredients, local specialties, coffee, flowers, handcrafts, or just as the place for a stroll. However, in a few months ago, it was a wet market that lay derelict for decades before a new life.
As a Chinese person, eating is a highly important feature of our culture. People care about the freshness and seasonality of ingredients, and the older generation generally prefers buying freshly slaughtered meat and fresh vegetable for daily consumption, that is why food markets form part of the rich tapestry of community life. Nevertheless, with the rapid development of E-commerce and the breakout of Covid-19, traditional food and wet markets are gradually losing their competitive advantage in terms of price and shopping experience.
According to the statistics on the Ministry of Commerce, there are over 44,000 wet markets and wholesale produce markets across the country, but they are increasingly losing out to other channels of purchasing fresh produce such as supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, and online supermarkets. During the period of Covid lockdowns, the sale of O2O E-grocery stores Hema Xiansheng operated by internet giants Alibaba Group soared to 220%. Correspondingly, some older shoppers who used to be faithful to their local food markets were embraced online grocery stores due to their safety, convenience, and discounts.
With a change of demand, there are a great number of traditional food markets are closed down due to low profits and poor management. But at the same time, some of the food markets start their adaptive reuse projects, allowing old details and building footprints to match with modern uses. The Shuangta Market is one of the pioneers that become the most exciting hidden gem in the city.
The Shuangta market is a local indoor food market that has a twenty-year history. It used to be an ordinary shopping spot for elderly residents, who are looking for fresher and cheaper food products than those sold in supermarkets. Over the years, traditional food/farmers markets in China are only sold fresh produce, and always carry a stigma as dirty, messy, and shabby. Thankfully, with a boom in the scale of urbanization in China, it is reshaping both the infrastructure and cultural fabric.
The Shuangta Market reconstruction was initiated by the Gusu district (one of five urban districts and a main district of Suzhou)’s government and constructed by the Mingcheng Construction group. After extensive renovations in December 2019, the exterior and functions of the Shuangta Market have greatly improved. It has filled with fresh food stalls, restaurants, café, local street food booths, handicraft stores, flower shops, etc. Community and educational programs have become a key focus — including workshops, events, exhibitions, and food festivals will take place in the outdoor space on a regular basis.
There are over 40 stands in the main hall are selling vegetables, fruits, meats, seafood, eggs, and soy products. For instance, Zhang’s Vegetable is a local farmer store focus on selling vegetables, on his stall, fresh tomatoes, carrots, spring bamboo shoots, cabbages, etc. neatly and artistically placed on the countertop. Da Tong Seafood is one of the first stalls opened in the Shuangta Market that sells a diverse range of seafood. It is a sight to see when faced with piles of fish being display on iron shelves. Each stallholder has a screen beyond their counter with personal information and a QR code that can track food safety and origins.
What is the biggest change after the renovation? Mr. Zhang, one of the vegetable stallholders mentioned: “The older generation is no longer the only guests. Young people and tourists also love to come here and enjoy a refreshing shopping experience. And the market facilities are highly improved, which is helpful.” When I asked him is there any extra income when the passenger traffic increased since reconstruction, he took a pause and responded haltingly: “Well, you know, there are a lot of young people and tourists flow through the market daily, but most of them are coming for breakfast, lunch or just taking some photos, this place for them is like a scenic spot. And there are many senior citizens who feel unfamiliar with the change and shop to other food markets now.” Mr. Zhang seems like didn’t answer my question directly, but from his response, I speculated that the earning is not optimistic.
Stepping deeper into the market, the street food booths area offers the authentic taste of Suzhou, including Su-style noodle soup, Chinese egg omelette, dim sum, desserts, and a great variety of local cuisines. Long queues can be seen in each spot. A shop named “Zi Hao Wonton” is the place where I always come here for breakfast. I sat down in a seat and order a bowl of delicate, warm handmade wonton soup. Savory pork is held together by a thin, translucent skin hidden beneath the springy, soaked in a light but delicious broth. The pork filling juiciness upon biting into them is absolutely the best cosy winter dish.
A girl who sat next to me looked satisfied too, when we chatted together, she told me that: “When I travelled aboard, I always impressed by other innovative markets around the world, such as La Boqueria in Barcelona, Borough Market in London. Its standardised, cosy, spacious, yet multifunctional space providing such a joyful shopping experience. “Chen, who is a university student in Suzhou, said to me. “I am so excited that my hometown Suzhou can now have a similar place.”
After I interacted with different people and asked their opinion on Shuangta Market’s reconstruction, most of them remained positive attitude. So, the re-establishment of food markets is a Good Thing, and they are doing well, at least for now. There is nothing to worry about and food markets may one day back to their heyday or even better -is there? Well, there are two issues that bother me. The first one: Are those renovative farm markets are sustainable or just a flash in the pan? The second one: Can stallholders/farmers be beneficial from such a large-scale project financially and psychologically in a long term?
These are the problems we need to figure out.
