Taipa Flea Market: Let's stop and take a look!

By Michelle, Guo Xiaoshi

"What I put here are all my own collections from very early years of mine when I was still in Guangdong. It's just a hobby of mine." Under the early morning sunshine, Mr. Lei sets up his shelf and table, displays his collections like old postcards, posters, coins, notes and tickets in order, waiting for the opening of his business. "Actually I'm just showing what I have, no matter if there would be any purchase or not."
This is the Taipa Flea Market at the Largo dos Bombeiros Taipa which is the meeting-point of the two most famous roads in Taipa: Rua Do Regedor and Rua Do Cunha. More than 30 vendors are gathering here, as participants of the market, from 11:00 to 20:00 each Sunday.
You will be surprised by the diversity of what are on display here: DIY handicrafts, original creative boutiques, souvenirs with Portuguese colors, intelligence toys and even some antiques that sellers have kept for decades like what Lei has.
What's more? There's a chance to appreciate band shows or dancing performances for free. These shows are available at the site between 16:00 to 17:00. They often attract a big crowd by offering a variety of performances including dancing, choirs, magic shows and instrumental performances.
The market does bring positive effects to the booth owners. Ng In Fung (not real name), a long-term booth owner in the market, is a housewife who has attended the market since the year 2008. She decided to apply for it because she just wanted to be occupied and get some additional income for the family. The market becomes her second career in addition to her daily chores of housework.
Meow Space, a charitable shop that mainly focuses on animal care and creative products, participates in the market because they hope that "selling the creative handmade products in a popular tourist spot can somehow help to expand the publicity of the Meow Space," Cora Si, owner of Meow Space said. "With a tremendous flow of tourists, Meow Space has become a big hit and some visitors who have already known us were surprised and happy to see that we were also here. It is much easier for them to come to us here than to our own shop."
However, the number of people attending the market is declining over the years. Si is also one of those who have eventually decided to quit. Si talked about her hardship that Meow Space has come across as one of the booth owners in the second phase of 2008.
"The attendance taking rule is one of the main reasons for us to quit," Si said. "The attendance has to be the same person every time or it will be considered an absence even if someone else is present in the booth. It is really an impossible rule for us to obey, because we have only two persons in our shop and we have to take care of our shop too."
The other Meow Space owner Almond Chan also complained, "There are no store rooms for us to place the goods after the market finishes on Sunday. It takes MOP140 to MOP160 to transport the goods from our shop to the market in Taipa. If we carry less stuff, our booth won't be attractive enough. If we carry a lot of stuff, we will suffer a deficit due to the high cost of truck rental, which can not be compensated by the free rent offered by the government."
Organized by the Instituto para os Assuntos Civicose Municipals (IACM), Taipa Flea Market has an 11-year history that dates back to 1999. The market is regularly held twice a year, each phase lasts 22 weeks. The current one is from July 18 to December 26.