Five Flower Markets open in downtown Guangzhou

By Bridget Zhang

Guangzhou-Jan 24 2009-IJS- Global.com  Five flower markets opened Friday in five different districts in order to attract more people to buy flowers and also celebrate the 2009 Lunar New Year, according to the Guangzhou Daily.

Different gates of flower markets were decorated with various ox models to grab people’s attention. People crowed around the gates and took photos.

Flower market in downtown Guangzhou(photo by Bridget Zhang)

Flower market in downtown Guangzhou (photo by Bridget Zhang)

Flower market in downtown Guangzhou (photo by Legend Liang)

Fresh flowers, paper cutting, crafts, toys and other commodities were sold at the flower markets. In order to create the ambience of the Lunar New Year, series of cultural activities including Guangdong music and folk music performance had been arranged in the Tianhe Market and Xihu Market.

Chinese flowing crabapple not sold well in flower markets

By Bridget Zhang
Guangzhou-Jan 24 2009-IJS- Global.com “Forever Enthralled” directed by a Chinese famous director Chen Kaige was released before the Lunar New Year. The film focused on a great Beijing Opera performer-Mei Lanfang’s life.

Chinese lowing crabapple was shown in this movie. Though the movie was popular in mainland China, the movie did not help Chinese flowing crabapple sell well at the flower markets. The price of this flower was much higher than other flowers because it usually grows in northern part of China. It was the first time for flower sellers to sell Chinese lowing crabapple in Guangzhou’s flower markets.

A flower seller said she imported 50 pot plants of Chinese lowing crabapple but she only sold 20 of them.
“The reason why I sell Chinese lowing crabapple is because this flower is fresh and not many people have seen it, but people can not accept the high price,” She said.

“ The bigger one cost at least 500RMB, but the smaller one cost 300RMB around.” She added.

Most people preferred taking photos of Chinese flowing crabapple to buying it. But some people wanted to own one.

“I know Chinese flowing crabapple from the movie “Forever Enthralled” and I like this flower so much,” a Guangzhou citizen, Holly Zhang said.

“Though the price of it is even higher than others, I still want to buy a small pot plant of it because it was a new flower different from other flowers at Guangzhou flower markets.” Holly added.

Prices of some flowers drop more than 30% this year at the flower markets. Before people bought flowers, they bargained with flower sellers so that they can buy more flowers with same budget as last year, according to the Guangzhou Daily.

Senior school students as bosses in flower markets

By Bridget Zhang
Guangzhou-Jan 24 2009-IJS- Global.com A senior school student, He Zhen with his five classmates invested a store in flower markets and sold toys and other commodities in order to gain more work experience from the business.

Student sellers in flower market (photo by Legend Liang)

“Once the spring holiday commenced, we planed to do business in flower market so that we can gain some work experience,” He said.

“My parents supported me with 3000RMB to invest this store, other five classmates also got 3000RMB from their parents.” He added.

In their store, they decorated with different toys and cute decorations to attract more buyers.

“ It is the first time for us to be bosses doing business. But we are very interested in it,” He’s classmate said.

“We imported theses commodities from a terminal market and sold them with a little higher price in flower market.” He added.

Six students all dressed up with toy and other decorations and hard sold their commodities.

“Even though we can not earn much money from the flower market, we did not care because we cherished this work experience,” He expressed.

“My friends and I try our best to do what we want and we experienced the hard working time.” He added.