Checking out organic choices

Shanghai Nonghao Farmers’ Market

Gubei Civic Center, 99 east Fugui Avenue, Changning district

Knowledge & Innovative Community, Daxue Road and Jinchuang Road, Yangpu district

Email to nonghaoma@gmail.com to learn latest time and address as well as detailed list of food suppliers.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

Markets as we know them now were first defined in the former foreign concessions in the late 19th century, according to Xue Liyong, a researcher at the Shanghai History Museum.

"Farmers and vendors were asked to sell at fixed spots and open-air markets were moved indoors. The concessions issued a rule in 1928 that there should be a market within 1 kilometer of each residential area. The Chinese communities soon followed suit," Xue says.

The little markets that grew around communities started to spill over on to roads after the 1950s in tandem with the rising population in the city.

"The most notorious were the Ninghai Road and Shunchang Road in Huangpu district. These roads were completely taken over by farmers and there was no room for vehicles to pass."

The situation then did not pose major traffic problems because there were not many cars at that time, but it still did make the streets dirty and messy. By the 1990s, the municipal government launched a campaign of keeping the city clean and tidy and open-air markets were once again moved inside.

— WU NI