Medicine Market.
John McGrath visits what is quite probably the largest trading centre for Traditional
Chinese Medicine in the world. Qing Ping has previously been implicated in the sale of
protected animals, including reptiles.
Conduct a quick online search for
images of Qing Ping market in
Guangzhou, China, and you will be
confronted with photos of piles of
dried snakes and lizards, and vendors
selling fresh owl and dog meat, to
name but a few items that may raise
concerns. So when I visited
Guangzhou recently I was keen to
check out the market to see what I
could find, particularly in the wake of
Kit Prendergast’s excellent article on
reptiles in Traditional Chinese
Medicine in Issue 8.
(TCM), being one of 17 Chinese
Herbal Medicine markets approved by
the state, and the only one in
Guangzhou. It is also the largest
Located in one of Guangzhou’s
metropolitan herbal medicine market
(formerly Canton) oldest districts near in China, occupying more than
the banks of the Pearl River, Qing
10,000m 2 and consisting of more than
Ping (pronounced Ching Ping) was
1,200 stalls. This makes it an impor-
created in 1979 and is primarily con- tant hub for the distribution of TCM
cerned with the trade of commodities ingredients, not only in southern
used in Traditional Chinese Medicine China, but throughout Southeast Asia