The taste of a city-Xiamen Eight Cities

Text/Shang Xiaoyou Pictures/Shang Xiaoyou, Apple, Internet

Whenever I think about where to go in Xiamen, my friends feel very troubled. After all, apart from shopping malls, Zhongshan Road and Gulangyu Island, Xiamen has only a handful of so-called attractions.

Perhaps because tourists come and go in a hurry and don’t have much time to feel the atmosphere of a city, but Xiamen is a place where you need to calm down to slowly appreciate its beauty. Therefore, those who travel only have a brief encounter with Xiamen, and it is difficult to truly get into it.

Compared to queuing up, taking photos, and checking in at various internet celebrity spots, I prefer to go to Xiamen’s downtown streets full of fireworks to explore the city’s unique scenery.

I saw a sentence that day: "If prosperity is the face of a city, then urban villages and old cities and villages hidden in the city are the lining of the city."

If you want to get really close to a city, it’s not enough to just stay on the surface. You also need to see what’s inside. In these places, you can see all kinds of people, things, and objects, you can feel the breath of life, and you can even see the behaviors behind civilization that are not within the scope of moral civilization for the sake of life.

The eight cities are one of Xiamen’s “lizi”.

Over the years, this seaside garden city has created an impression of beauty and livability. Few people have explored the ancient Xiamen behind the modern civilized city.

However, the urban streets, full of authentic southern Fujian flavor, are also a part of Xiamen that cannot be ignored.

The reason why the Eighth City is called the Eighth City is the abbreviation of Xiamen's "Eighth Vegetable Market". Xiamen used to have wet markets No. 1 to No. 9. Most of these vegetable markets were demolished and disappeared during the renovation of the old city and the rectification of the environment around tourist attractions, and were replaced by modern buildings.

Not many of the nine major wet markets have survived, and only the "Seventh Wet Market" and the "Eighth Wet Market" are relatively intact. The "Seventh Vegetable Market" is now known as the "Datong Vegetable Market" to most people, and it is now the food delivery hub of most vegetable markets in Xiamen. The "Eighth Vegetable Market", also known as "Eight Markets", whose full name is "Yingping Farmers' Market", is close to the port and is the largest seafood market hub in Xiamen.

In recent years, the eight cities full of fireworks have gradually become one of the places where tourists come to Xiamen. Under the old arcades, there are countless fruit and vegetable stalls, seafood and meat stalls, and authentic Minnan pastry shops. The surrounding environment is noisy, the roads are crowded and damp, and the air is filled with the smell of salty seafood... This is the eighth city. Unique landscape.

As a vegetable market with a relatively complete range of varieties, the Eight Cities are not only a good place for many Xiamen people to buy seafood, purchase ingredients for family banquets, and buy new year’s goods, but are also a place where young people today can taste authentic local delicacies and look for the taste of their childhood. place.

"The taste of a city is all in the time."

"Those who want to accompany you to eat will love to eat ups and downs; those who want to send you home will eat all the food in the southeast, northwest and northwest." On the way."

There are two impressive sentences in the store slogan on Bashi Street.

The older you get, the more your tongue will remember the things you ate when you were a child. Wandering on the streets filled with countless familiar southern Fujian specialties, when the food I had eaten as a child suddenly reappeared in front of my eyes, even though my stomach was too full to hold it, I still couldn't help but buy some to try, and recalled the time I stayed in The taste on the tip of the tongue is familiar and friendly.

When we grew up, we scattered all over the world and went our separate ways. Most of us lived in our own tracks and rarely crossed paths. The rare time together and delicious food always become extremely anticipated and gratifying.

Many times when we go to enjoy delicious food, in addition to the food, what is more important is the people who eat with us; Good times when friends spend time together.

Walking around the eight cities known as the "Gourmet Map", there are several old restaurants serving delicious food that you have to try.

Authentic daily meals from eight cities that last a whole day. , although it is not a delicacy, it will always be a place that people miss.

Whether it is breakfast time, Yaben Wheat Milk at No. 158 Kaiyuan Road, Yanwei Gucha Hotpot Paste next door, traditional noodle paste, Zhengji Pan-fried Buns, and soy milk from Hefeng Doufang.

For lunch, Yousheng’s four unique snacks in southern Fujian – pig’s knuckle noodles, sand tea noodles, clear soup noodles and braised noodles. Or the xiaolongbao on Hengzhu Road, Conghui Tongan Fengrou and Laicuo Cheng Bianshi, or the fried bread at Huiyuan Bakery.

There are also Zhong Lijun Pan-fried Cake, Huilin Bamboo Shoot Jelly, Ajie Five Spice, Ginger Tea Duck, Liangshan Food Stall and Zhuji Shredded Chicken.

The taste of life is hidden in ordinary meals. In my free time, I go to Bashi with my friends, walk slowly and look at them, and rest and eat when I feel tired. It is also a very enjoyable thing.

In addition, there are Adi’s candied tea, Ajizi’s and Jizhi Department Store’s water chestnut cakes. During night snack time, go to food stalls, small bars, and barbecue stalls with friends to chat.

Wine, meat, friends, stories, and complaints are one of the beauties of life, but that’s it.

"Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.". The eight cities with noisy crowds are like small rivers and lakes.

Walking on the streets of Bashi for the first time, in addition to sighing at the bustling market atmosphere, the quaint and dilapidated buildings around it are also very eye-catching.

The wet, noisy, and crowded wet markets that are unique to wet markets are extremely obvious in the seafood market in Bashi. This is a completely different scene from Xiamen’s modern and prosperous cities such as Zhongshan Street, World Trade Center, and Vientiane City.

When I look up, through the dilapidated attics and windows that have not been renovated for many years and are covered with dust, I can vaguely see that there are still people living in these old buildings. From time to time, you can see clothes hanging out to dry on the windows that open outward.

I am accustomed to the modernity and prosperity of Xiamen. When I first entered the eight cities, the scene in front of me made me feel like I had entered a different world.

In the small rivers and lakes of the eight cities, "martial arts movies" are being staged all the time. Every early morning, when most people are still in a deep sleep, the vendors in the vegetable market start to be busy all day long. They do not close their stalls until the crowds disperse at night.

They work like this from dawn to dusk, day after day, year after year, even if it is windy or raining, they rarely have a break.

"Being short of a pound" is a unique trick of vegetable market vendors, and "bargaining" is an indispensable step in the transaction in the vegetable market. Bashi, one of the largest vegetable markets in Xiamen, is naturally no exception.

In order to make more money, the vegetable sellers try to do tricks with their money. In order to prevent themselves from being taken advantage of by others, the vegetable buyers keep their eyes open to distinguish the authenticity. The two parties bargain, back and forth, doing Tai Chi. . It is a common practice for locals, but if outsiders are not familiar with the culture here, they can easily be blackmailed when buying groceries.

The so-called arena is just for living.

The eight cities are different from Xiamen, a seaside tourist garden city, but they are also an integral part of Xiamen with southern Fujian characteristics.

Put aside the high-rise buildings in the bustling center, the appearance of shopping malls and cinemas, the streets close to residences in the old city, and the lining of the market.

Stroll through time, shuttle through the streets of the eight cities with a dazzling array of meat and vegetable stalls, tea cake shops, and delicatessens, feel the most unique market appearance of Xiamen, and taste old Xiamen bit by bit Authentic food. You will understand more clearly what Xiamen really looks like.

The taste of the Eight Cities, with the markets and fireworks of Xiamen, hides the old times of southern Fujian.

No matter how much time has passed, no matter how far we have traveled, the people and things that have long been rooted in our memory can never be dispersed.