Wet markets make new destinations in Yunnan

Tourists and citizens buy mushrooms in the Yunnan Mushuihua Wild Edible Mushrooms Trading Center. (Photo by Xinhua)

Tourists buy online-popular cuisines in Zhuanxin wet market. (Photo by Xinhua)

During the peak summer travel season, 33-year-old Deng Lei from Shaoyang city of Hunan province, along with his wife and children, sought respite from the heat in Kunming city, capital of Yunnan in recent days. Their first destination in Kunming wasn't a popular tourist spot. Instead, they headed straight to a bustling local wet market.

Currently, it's the season when wild mushrooms are abundant in Yunnan. The enthusiasm of Yunnan locals for savoring wild mushrooms, as well as the interesting stories about their consumption, has spread through social media to various parts of China and even around the world, attracting a lot of attention.

The Yunnan Mushuihua Wild Edible Mushrooms Trading Center, located in Kunming's Guandu district, is China's largest wild mushroom trading market. A dazzling array of edible wild mushrooms are sent from this market to all over China. Finally the mushrooms become delicacies.

Entering this bustling wet market, Deng Lei expressed amazement. "We saw various information about Yunnan's wild mushrooms online and decided to bring kids here. It's truly as good as what is described, and I even bought two cases of mushroom and sent home," he said.

Zhai Zhanshi, the market director of this market, said wet market tours have become a new trend this year. "We currently have an average daily trading volume of around 500 tons of wild mushrooms and more than 20,000 visitors daily, many of whom are tourists.

Born in the 2000s, Liu Ziyu and her friend from Shanghai strolled into the Zhuanxin wet market in downtown Kunming, taking photos and tasting local foods for half a day. Through narrow alleyways, tourists and local shoppers mingled together, with long lines forming outside stores.

According to statistics, the daily visitor flow reaches 60,000 people. Here, Yunnan's unique foods like steam pot chicken, wild mushrooms, milk custard, milk fan, pickled eggplant in pepper, and more can be found.

Data from online platforms such as Meituan and Dianping show that in the past month, searches for "wetmarkets" in Yunnan have increased by over 160% compared to the previous month, and searches for "Daguan zhuanxin wet market" have grown by nearly 190%, with reviews increasing by over 60%.

Source: Yunnan Daily; trans-editing by Wang Yunya