In Yanjing, the earliest antique ghost market appeared in Yandaixie Street outside Anmen Square in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. In that era, the country was in trouble, not to mention the common people’s birth, even the Eight Banners or the rich family were all in panic all day long. Some things that seemed serious illegal in modern times became increasingly rampant in that era, such as tomb robbers.

In that era, on Yandaixi Street outside Di'anmen, many people trade antiques before dawn, because many treasures were sold by rich children or tomb robbers. The former was afraid of losing face to his ancestors, while the latter was afraid of suing the case, and they all went to the market to sell things in a dark way, so they were called "ghost market".

Later, with the increasing turmoil of social order, there were more ghost markets in Yanjing, but most of these ghost markets appeared outside the 49th city, such as the eighth ghost market mentioned earlier.

Of course, in addition to the ghost market, there were also some serious antique markets in Yanjing before the liberation. For example, the Liulichang, Fulong Temple and Lao Dong'an Market formed in the early Qing Dynasty. These markets can be regarded as genuine antique markets.

However, after liberation, antiques were "banned" by the state as a special commodity. The industry policy of "public and private joint ventures" made many private antique shops gradually fade out of the market. The rare cultural relics scattered among the people were all named "three unifications", that is, the state purchased them, set prices, and sold them uniformly, forming a situation where state-owned cultural relics stores unified the world. At that time, the antique collection market in Yanjing City was considered a formal antique collection, and there were only a dozen cultural relics stores. For example, the Yanjing Cultural Relics Store at that time specialized in antique treasures, while the Huaxia Bookstore specialized in ancient books, calligraphy, paintings, and old books.

There is no doubt that in the circulation of antique collections in China, state-owned cultural relics stores have occupied the main communication channel, and have played a very important role in preventing the loss of cultural relics, rescuing precious cultural relics, and obtaining foreign exchange.

But we have to see that this special "channel" is also in a state of "closed-door self-operation". For a long period of time, it was often only open to foreign guests, and Chinese people could not become buyers, which greatly affected the overall healthy development of my country's cultural and entertainment market. At that time, some radical antique collectors in China were only willing to take the risk of "illegal violation" and go to the private sector to purchase it alone.

So under this situation, the "ghost market" that had disappeared for a long time appeared again.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the buying and selling of antiques was in a state of illegal and legal tangled, and antique business was mostly conducted underground and semi-underground. For example, in the late 1970s, Yanjing Longtan Park formed a large-scale bird market. In addition to selling birds, it also began to sell old bird cages, old cages, old bird bars, etc. The most typical antiques are bird food jars from the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, with many fine products. It is said that a Qianlong blue and white bird food jar was sold at most for fifty yuan! However, it is precisely because of this kind of transaction that Longtan Lake Bird City was searched many times by the Public Security Bureau and the Cultural Relics Bureau.

In that era, a very strange phenomenon occurred, that is, the rural areas around Yanjing suddenly became active. For example, in that era, farmers in X County, Hebei Province and other places carried two large baskets on bicycles, carrying old porcelain collected from ten miles and eight villages, and set out in a row, setting off in the middle of the night to deliver goods to cultural relics stores such as Di'anmen and Hufangqiao. The "convoy" came early, and before these stores opened, there were already long queues at the door. Next to these teams, a group of city people often met and chatted with farmers. These were all "pioneers" of Chinese antiques.

At that time, the cultural relics store received goods at a very low price. A pair of "three hundred pieces" porcelain bottles - at that time, people often called large porcelain bottles with a sloping shoulder, a double dragon ear, and a height of about 1.48 meters to 1.50 meters. The price ranged from a few yuan to more than ten yuan (isn't it very cheap? It's really cheap. Although most of the three hundred pieces of porcelain bottles were porcelain bottles from after the Daoguang Dynasty and even from the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, such a large bottle cost only ten yuan was really unimaginable!), the purchase conditions were also very harsh. If you were slightly disabled, you would be rejected. The "firstists" outside the door waited for an opportunity to negotiate prices and intercepted the goods that farmers could not sell. Most of the earliest antique dealers in Yanjing remembered the "chasing big baskets" era, which should be considered the "pre-historical period" of the modern antique market in Yanjing.

There is a tradition in Yanjing's antique market, that is, antique business is mixed in daily necessities. This is the case before the liberation of the "ghost market". It was also in the early 1980s that a frivolous market was formed at the north gate of Xuanwu Park and opened on Thursdays. Because Yanjing was on the turnover by district, Xuanwu District was on Thursdays. The entire street was filled with frivolous goods, including bicycle parts, daily necessities, and antique stalls.

By the mid-1980s, the volume of antique art transactions increased greatly, so several antique markets worth noting appeared in Yanjing. First, due to the manager's squeeze on the antique market in Xuanwu Park, antique merchants were forced to move northward and gather on the west side of Guohua Shopping Mall on Changchun Street. This market was originally mixed with vegetables, but later it squeezed out the vegetable stalls and became quite large. At that time, in order to prevent being caught, those stalls had a piece of cloth on the ground and put a few things on it. Whenever there was a stir, they grabbed the four corners of the cloth and lifted it up and ran away.

Almost at the same time, an antique market also appeared in Gulou, which was adjacent to stalls selling snacks such as sautumn. Soon, a qualitative leap was made. The market set up a special shed, and the antique stall became an antique shop. However, this market has been open for several years, but it has never received the official permission of the cultural relics department.

Around this time, due to market management and other reasons, antique dealers suddenly came to a "crusade", almost collectively moving eastward to Shabanzhuang in CY District, which was covered with weeds, that is, the original site of the current Yanjing Antique City. Before and after, a market also appeared on a slope just a arrow northwest of Shabanzhuang, which is the predecessor of the current Panjiayuan Market.

At that time, vendors from other places carried baskets and sacks on their backs, and they came here to set up stalls every Sunday, and the market size soon developed. Shabanzhuang and Panjiayuan echoed each other, marking a new stage in the development of the BJ antique market. At this time, the government's regulatory authorities also went from blindly searching to taking advantage of the situation, basically recognizing the legitimacy of the market.

Then, Shabanzhuang became the Yanjing antique city, while Panjiayuan developed into the largest antique and twelve-goods distribution center in the country, attracting 60,000 to 70,000 Taobao users and tourists to visit here every day, including more than 10,000 foreigners.

PS: Bow to thank the "Ziyan Tianjiao" for the reward of 200.
Chapter completed!