The busiest street in the small county of Ala in the southwestern part of central China's Hunan Province serves as the venue for an open-air market selling daily necessities from food and clothes to household articles.
The busiest street in the small county of Ala in the southwestern part of central China's Hunan Province serves as the venue for an open-air market selling daily necessities from food and clothes to household articles. Held every five days, the fair draws numerous people from villages nearby and in Guizhou Province some 20 miles away. It is a major festive event for a town without 24-hour convenience stores or large supermarkets. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
Chopped red chilies, a universal ingredient in Hunan cuisine, are put out for sale at the Ala fair. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
A fairgoer shouldering a bamboo basket of ducklings moves through the crowd. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
An elderly woman dressed in the traditional clothing of the Tujia ethnic group carries her two new bamboo brooms through a stream of people. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
Wearing a large bamboo hat to block the violent midday sun, an old man sells a kind of fruit indigenous to Ala, which looks like a white turnip from the outside but tastes sweet and juicy when its skin is peeled off. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
Almost everyone at the Ala fair carries a bamboo basket on his or her back - it's the local equivalent to shopping baskets. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
A woman sells homemade ice-cooled jelly made of rice for one yuan a bowl. The jelly feels fresh and slippery in the mouth. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
A baby boy eats rice noodles with his bare hands while standing steadily in the bamboo basket on his mother's back. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
An elderly women cooks fried stuffed bread to sell at her small stall along the street. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]
A rooster crows from the bamboo basket on the back of a young woman who is selling sugary snacks in front of a food stall. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]