oh man, that is an aggressive name... what a way to start off the video!
Now, if there's one thing that's true about china...one thing
that never changes about china, it is the fact that china is
always changing. This is one of the many many reasons that i love
living here in china, and it's one of the things that i want to talk about today.
And it is one of the changes that's happened in the chinese market
and that is... well, look around me...maybe you can guess!
wholesale markets and specifically second-hand markets,
and just the idea of second-hand things in china.
that's today's topic. Up until just a few years ago, maybe even the past two or
three years -- if you had asked a chinese person
"Would you buy a second hand product?" most of them would say:
"No -- ooh someone else has touched that before? Someone else has had this thing
before. i don't want that thing. I want something new
that was made just for me..." et cetera et cetera, but this is one of
those things that has changed in china.
This topic was actually recommended by a member of the youtube channel
because if you actually join the channel at a certain tier, you can
suggest videos, and i'm going to do one of those once a month.
So if you've not joined the channel, please click the link down in the
description or in the pinned comment, and it'll take you right there.
I believe in 2020, the second-hand market in china was valued at over
a trillion yuan. So many things are being sold
over wechat, things are being sold on taobao, second hand things are being
sold on this app called Xian Yu, which is like
"the idle fish." This is a massive thing that is
happening. It's a huge shift in china's economy, you know.
And the thing that i can remember is it kind of popping up at the same time or even
just a little bit after mobike and shared bikes came out.
The idea of the shared economy started to kind of push the
chinese kind of consciousness towards.... you know, maybe
sharing a few things and buying second-hand things. And this is really cool!
So let's actually get to a language
point right here. this might actually help you
throughout the rest of the video. So we should talk about
what is "second hand" in chinese? It is ershou.
So, "er" means two and "shou" means hand. So it's literally the same
in chinese as it is in english. And there's another phrase
that we should talk about which is "Xin Jiu" which means
old and new, or "Fei Jiu" which means like discarded old things. So you get things
that are refurbished. So, for example - if you zoom in right here, you'll see
"Yi Qie Fei Jiu," which means that everything here
is like refurbished. It WAS kind of thrown out, but it's all secondhand now.
everything in this area is second hand. And then if you kind of keep
swinging along, over here you'll see another one where
it says "Yi Qie Er Shou", which means everything in here is
secondhand. And that's pretty cool, right?
It's not just cool because it exists, right? It's cool because it
exists AND because there's so much activity.
there's always things going in and out. It's actually being bought, it's actually
being sold. And that means things are actually changing
yet again in china! So let's first talk about Xian Yu,
and then we're going to get on to this place that i'm at right here.
so if you're not interested in the app tour, you can just skip to the next bit
and get right to the wholesale market. All right!
so let's open up the app and just get started. It's over here by
discord. And there we go -- we're going to open it.
You always have to watch the advertisements first for any chinese
app. So if we go up at the top, here you can
see there's second hand phones, there's gaming, there's books,
toys, i guess -- and you can click categories
and see just all the stuff.... just all ... i mean look at how many
categories there are. But here on the top, i can go to chengdu.
i can search for people in the city, and i can search for people within 5 or
10 kilometers or the whole city. And i can just start scrolling. And I can even
here search within chengdu, and .... what the heck is this
oh i don't like this
Transportation -- so, bikes - see the prices there. You can see where they're located.
lenses, phones, ipads..there are some home appliances
and there's even pets - people giving away pets.
it seems like a pretty good app. It's very thorough!
it looks fun! i just don't want --- i don't want to sign up for it. i don't want any
more apps on my phone, if i'm honest. And there you have it! that's your tour
of Xian Yu, or the Idle Fish: the top secondhand app in china
and now let's head over to the secondhand market
in chengdu. Boy this is cool!
It's funny that I've been living in chengdu for so long, but i had no idea that there's actually a
massive secondhand market right here just off of the third ring road...one of
chengdu's major roads! But just inside the
third ring northeast there's all of this all of this
let me show you a little bit about this place
music
what i can't get my head quite around is just how big this place is!
this place is so massive! i never -- i had no idea that a place like this even
existed...like...there's... there are streets within
this market. There's like street after street after street, and it's like a maze
because there's just so much here to see. And warehouse
after warehouse after warehouse. And so many of
these shops ... they have second levels, kind of like that one
because there's just so much stuff here ... like all
of these shops! Well..not all of them, but most of them
have some pretty cool stuff. Actually, yeah -- it's absolutely amazing
yeah i mean look at this place. this is cool. look!
Is that an accordion right there? so we got -- we got an accordion.
Got some boom boxes, some old tvs -- pretty cool some tea cups.
They've got a crib right here. is that another accordion? Yep looks like it.
A steering wheel for a ship...
man yeah this place has it all! this place has it all!
huh yeah and it's all just so dusty...
yeah, secondhand stuff it doesn't get a lot of love in china....but
i have a feeling with these new apps ... excuse me, with these new apps and things ----
These might these might actually sell eventually!
i mean, yeah -- seeing how big this place is -- I challenge you! I defy you to come here
and not find something. Just pick something in your mind that could go in
your house -- they got it somewhere -- something that can
go in your restaurant -- they got it somewhere.
i mean, i've never seen such a random and massive
assortment of ... stuff ... in my life! i've been here for an hour and a half,
and i'm still finding places around here.
I'm still finding more and more streets. i'm still finding
more and more stuff to look at. It just kind of
reminds me, and it just drives further home the point of
thinking about how much buying power
chinese consumers have ... just how much money there is
in the chinese market. Not even like the preferred stuff, which is the new stuff,
but even just the second hand... look at how much there is, and all of the
trucks that i've been seeing -- taking, you know, bringing more and more
stuff in and then taking stuff out ... just going and coming and
coming and going. Just the sheer amount of money and the sheer
amount of goods + materials that are going in and out of
this ONE place...this ONE market here in china.
Here... not even in china...here in this one CITY! This one area of Chengdu....
is just mind-blowing... just mind-blowing. And then you multiply
that by an entire country! and wow! Not just any country...but a
country the size of the united states, and with four
or five times the population...wow! And all of this, remember -- for second
...second-hand goods. Not even first-hand goods. Second-hand goods!
That about does it for today -- i got here at 2:00pm,
and it's 5:00pm now...it's five! So i'm tired. I filmed a whole lot, but it's
been quite the adventure at...uh...I forgot the name of this place.
hold on, so....uh let's see.
Liang Jia Hong Hua - yes - Liang Jia Hong Hua second hand market here in chengdu.
wow what a place! Yeah like i said before -- if you like window shopping
and if you like.... i don't know just seeing something different.
You know me - i like seeing something a little different - come here, and
it'll be well worth your time! So thank you all very much for watching.
It has been quite the day! thank you to carly
from my channel memberships for suggesting this video!
wow what a day! So yeah -- that'll be about all, and i guess
i'll see you all next time!