Dongtai lu Antique Market

Dongtai Lu Antique Market, located in Dongtai Road in the Luwan District of Dongtai, a suburb ofShanghai , is a renowned outdoor market where one can find many "antiques" (most are said to be fake!), yet one is inclined to forgive the vendors at this very special old flea market for any fakery, because Dongtai Lu is the only remaining flea market in the Shanghai area that is still devoted to selling antiques, however genuine they may or may not be.

Dongtai Lu Antique Market has character; here, amidst the trinkets and possible ersatz antiques, you will run across old-timers loudly playing cards, or slapping Mahjong tiles on tabletops to the accompaniment of shouts (Mahjong is a game of tiles for four players, though apparently based on a card game, where one typically plays so-called suits, as one does with mahjong, which has prompted some to suggest that the game is in fact based on a certain card game called Ma Diao). Many, if not most, of the flea market's stalls are run by women, who seem constantly to yak among themselves and with prospective customers, a further detail that adds flavor to Dongtai Lu Antique Market.