A Street

This small street on the western perimeter of Shanghai is home to a row of furniture sellers who source their wares from city homes and the nearby provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The furniture is purportedly old, but its provenance hard to establish. The street has about ten shops on either side, each about ten feet wide and thirty feet deep.  The shops are all alike, with furniture piled either side of a narrow passageway that leads to the back of the store. There are tables, foot stools, chairs, old screens and smaller items such as wooden foot baths and washing tubs.

In the recesses of each store are the owners' four-poster beds, each more distinguished than any of the furniture on sale. Besides every bed are drinking vessels, one of which is usually a hot water flask. There are no toilets and the cooking facilities primitive.