Tumen 5 - No Vons (Tumen, China; 11/2008)

The North Market was a one-stop-shop for everything from fresh fish and vegetables to fly swatters, school supplies, and tailoring services. It was one big open rectangle, with vendor spilling into vendor. Butcher tables and seafood tanks stood in the center while vegetables, grains, beans, and other dry goods flanked the outer walls. Behind those walls, there were small eateries for dumplings and noodles. And those stood alongside hidden, often unmanned shops.

It wasn't so much the eating and shopping that I enjoyed--I kind of just liked getting lost in a landscape that was so different from the sea of Del Tacos and supermarket chains in the LA burbs.