Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Huanglongxi Shops

Huanglongxi Shops

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Fri 18 May 2018 22:27

Some of the Shops We Saw on Our Bimble Through Huanglongxi

No sooner than we had cocked our legs over the car prevention barrier than we were assaulted with food smells, some good, some strange and some quite ....... odd...... The non-food shops also began.

Our first Chinese jack shop was just around the corner.

Sadly, the next ‘thing’ we saw was a cruel show. A stand, open to the elements, especially the sun, held a number of tiny toys each holding a baby turtle. Below, a larger plastic box on the left containing more turtles and to the right, a plastic box with little water, full of goldfish. Moving right along to look across the little stream and a quaint picture of shops on the other side, accessible by stepping stones.

A rather posh rosewater shop and a clothing store that fitted well into the aged wood.

A shop full of hand-embroidered shoes and sandals.

More stepping stones and traditional lanterns in red.

Out into a huge courtyard, a wine shop where people bought straight from the barrels outside.

The wine shop is also a restaurant, once a patron has finished eating they chuck their crockery in a pile by the door. A couple of ‘normal’ looking shops.

OH MY in the wood shop.

Just along from the Zhenjiang Temple was this elderly pawn shop and opposite was the water collecting alley. The history of the pawnshop can be traced back to Emperor Wu of Southern and Northern Dynasty. At that time, natural and man-made disasters happened from time to time. It was a chaos of war turmoil. In order to appease the mass, the government gave off large amounts of funds to relieve the mass and allowed the mass to impawn articles for cash. It was the rudiment of pawnbroking. In the ninth year of Emperor Tongzhi’s reign, Hui Gang started to establish Public Aid Pawnshop in Huizhou, which had a greater influence than Zhejiang Gang. The pawnshop opened by Chaozhou people was called Ya Tou Pawnshop.

The business scope of pawnshop was considerably extensive. Things such as gold or silver jewellery, clothes, copper pan, curios and porcelains that had some value could be pawned. When the articles were pawned to the pawnshop, a pawn ticket, a piece of white paper printed with blue characters, was given as the pawn evidence. The valid period was twelve months and five days. If the article failed to be bought back, it was the pawnshop’s right to deal with the article. If the article was eaten by moths or rotten, the pawnshop did not bear any liability. If the pawn ticket was lost, the pawnshop would not provide another ticket. They only admitted the ticket not the one who impawned the article. When the ticket was lost, Ticket Makeup Fee was charged. If people hold other people’s ticket to see the article, they should be charged with Catching Fee. Large articles occupying land should be charged with Placement Fee. The shopkeeper in charge of bargaining was called Mr. Chaofeng. Chaofeng was formerly an official title, while later it was used as special title for pawnshop keepers who specialised in evaluation and writing pawn tickets. They always bargained at a very low price and the poor people were hence at a disadvantage situation and suffer losses.

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