Supermarkets, wet markets and convenience stores in China: shopping for food like a local

A hotel fridge full of fruit, a train picnic from the station supermarket, a morning at the wet market with a guide, a self-catering week in a serviced apartment while visiting relatives: a lot of a China trip runs on ordinary grocery shopping, and it is one of the pleasures of the place once you know the three kinds of shop. This guide is for the families and long-stay visitors who ask us where to buy the milk.

The wet market

Every neighbourhood has one: a covered hall or a street of stalls selling vegetables, fruit, meat, live fish and poultry, tofu, eggs, noodles, pickles and spices, open from about 6 am and busiest at seven, when the retirees shop for the day. It is loud, wet underfoot (hence the name), and the best food education in China. What to know:

• Produce is seasonal and local: whatever is piled highest is in season and cheap. Winter brings greens and roots, spring bamboo shoots, summer melons, autumn crab and persimmons.
• Fish and poultry are sold live, chosen from tanks and cages and killed and cleaned on the spot; it is the reason Chinese kitchens serve such fresh fish and it is confronting for some visitors and children.
• Tofu and noodles are made fresh at stalls that sell nothing else; the stall-holder cuts to order.
• Pricing is per jin (500 g), marked or quoted; bargaining is light and mostly not done at food stalls, though a smile and a small round-down is normal.
• Paying is Alipay or WeChat at a QR code on the stall, even for a single bunch of coriander; coins are nearly gone. The Alipay guide is the setup.

Shanghai’s Wuzhong Road and Jiashan markets and the neighbourhood markets of the Concession and Hongkou, Beijing’s Sanyuanli (the chefs’ market, with the best imported produce) and the hutong markets, are the ones guides use; the parks guide pairs the market with the park at seven and breakfast at the stalls outside.

Supermarkets

The big chains are familiar in shape and surprising in content:

• Hema (Freshippo), Alibaba’s supermarket, is the modern one: scan-and-pay by app, live seafood cooked to order on the spot, imported wine and cheese, and 30-minute delivery to any address within three kilometres, which is how most Shanghai families shop now. Several in every district.
• Ole’, City’super, BHG and the Japanese Aeon stores stock imported goods for expatriates: Australian beef and lamb, a2 milk, Weet-Bix, Vegemite in the bigger ones, cheese, bread, wine and the Australian supplements that Chinese customers buy as gifts.
• Carrefour, RT-Mart, Walmart and the local chains are the everyday big stores, with vast fresh sections, fish counters, a bakery, and a floor of homewares; cheaper, Chinese-focused, and the place for rice, noodles, snacks and the family’s water.
• Station and airport supermarkets in every high-speed station sell fruit, sandwiches, instant noodles (there is hot water on the train), nuts and drinks for the journey, as the train guide notes.

Milk, yoghurt, butter and cheese exist in all of them; bread is sweeter and softer than Australian bread, with the Japanese and French-style bakeries the fix. Fruit is sold by weight and is excellent and cheap in season.

Convenience stores

FamilyMart, Lawson, 7-Eleven, Alldays and the local chains are on every block in Shanghai and Beijing, open 24 hours, and stock water, milk, fruit cups, onigiri, sandwiches, instant noodles, hot snacks (tea eggs, steamed buns, oden), umbrellas, chargers, toiletries, nappies, beer, and the morning coffee. They are clean, cheap, and the answer to most “where do I get a…” questions at eleven at night. Pay by Alipay or card.

Fruit shops and bakeries

Independent fruit shops (shuiguo dian) on most streets sell cut fruit in boxes, whole fruit by weight, and juices; a box of melon and dragon fruit is the children’s snack in summer. Bakeries in the Japanese and Taiwanese style (85°C, Paris Baguette, Bread Talk and the independents) do the soft buns, egg tarts and cakes that keep a family going between meals.

Delivery

Meituan and Ele.me (restaurant and grocery delivery) and the Hema and Dingdong grocery apps bring anything, from a watermelon to a hot dinner, to a hotel lobby in thirty minutes for a tiny fee; they need Alipay or WeChat and a Chinese address in characters, which hotel reception writes for you. Families staying in serviced apartments live on them; hotel guests use them for the fruit and the 10 pm noodles. A guide sets the app up in five minutes on the first day if asked.

Self-catering

In a serviced apartment or a relative’s kitchen, the shopping is a wet market for produce in the morning and a Hema delivery for everything else; rice cookers and woks are in every kitchen, ovens are rare, and the supermarket’s ready-made sauces (hotpot bases, mapo tofu kits, dumpling wrappers) make cooking easy. The visiting relatives guide covers staying with family; the baby guide lists the nappies and formula.

What to buy for a train picnic

Fruit cups and a box of cherry tomatoes from the fruit shop; onigiri, a sandwich or a steamed bun from the convenience store; a pack of instant noodles for the hot-water dispenser; nuts and dried fruit; a bottle of tea and a bottle of water. Bought in ten minutes at the station and better than the dining car.

A note on water and hygiene

Bottled water everywhere, as the toilets and hygiene guide says; wash fruit in bottled or boiled water or peel it; and in the wet market, as in any market, keep bags closed and shoes sensible.

With a guide

A wet market with a guide at seven, followed by a cooking class with what you bought (the experiences guide), is one of the best mornings we run, for adults and for children old enough to be interested in the fish. On day guide bookings the guide also does the unglamorous things: the Hema order for the apartment, the fruit shop on the way to the hotel, and the convenience store at ten for the forgotten charger.