A Tour of China in Winter
Part 1c
An Arcade of Aquarium Shops in Beijing

By Howard Norfolk
Original to Aquarticles.com

Introduction
China is one of those countries where all shops selling the same thing group together in the same building, street or district. I became particularly aware of this when walking around the city of Shanghai. First I noticed that I was on a street where there were beauty salons and hair stylists all over the place. These eventually merged into dozens of building product suppliers. Up a side street most people were selling and repairing bicycles, and then I came to a restaurant district....

In North America, Europe and other countries, businesses tend to be spread around, each serving its own neighbourhood, except for a few specialist categories such as car dealers, art galleries, antique dealers and used bookstores.

Aquarium shops in Chinese cities follow the Chinese rule of clumping together. If you find one you will probably find twenty or more. They are usually associated with flower and garden supply shops, and there may be a few bird and other pet dealers mixed in. Most cities just have one aquarium district, but really large cities may have several.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each system:
- In China, buyers can easily shop around for the best bargains, a particular item they may be looking for, and any new fish or products that only one shop might have - a big plus. But they might have to travel all across their city to buy just one small thing, since they don't have the convenience of a store in their own neighbourhood. Should their shopping list include buying a goldfish, buying a shirt, getting a haircut and having their bicycle repaired, they may well have to make a special trip (by bus or bicycle) to four separate parts of town to find what they want - they can't just park at their own local main street or shopping mall and get everything there. Similarly, they can't just stop by their local store at lunchtime or on their way home from work to see what new things they might have - each visit requires a purposeful trip, so they might miss good new stuff or bargains anyway.
- Sellers in China have to be very competitive and must find it hard to build up a loyal clientele. But on the other hand, if they have good stock or are offering a bargain or a new or special item, they are sure to have the maximum walk-by traffic. (Although due to the extreme competitiveness of the Chinese economy, any advantage they might discover may soon be neutralised by others jumping in). They would not have to advertise or attempt to become a 'destination store' - everyone would go there anyway.

Which system would you prefer, as a buyer or as a seller? Perhaps you will have a better idea when you see how I found things are done in China:

The arcade:
Beijing is a very large city (population nearly 14 million) and has several aquarium districts. Billy, my guide, has an aquarium at home, so he took me to the suburban arcade where he shops for fish.

Up some steps and through an impressive front entrance, we entered a large warehouse-style building. Most of it was devoted to the sale of flowers and garden supplies, but at one end there was an aquarium section.

Some fish tanks can be seen at the end of the large open arcade, in the photo to the right.

Click on photos for enlargements, then go 'BACK' :

About a dozen aquarium shops each had a row or two of shelves in open aisles in the middle of the floor. It was sometimes hard to tell where one ended and the other began. Three or four larger shops had a rectangular area to themselves, against the walls.

Two of the larger shops.

These blocks of tanks essentially show the stocks of individual smaller stores.

I walked around the arcade, signalling to each shopkeeper with my camera to see if it was OK for me to take photographs. None of them spoke much English, but they all nodded consent.

I have sorted the photos into categories:

Goldfish and Koi
Goldfish were originally developed as ornamental fish in China in about AD1000, and they are still the most popular fish to keep.

As can be seen, small goldfish were 1 yuan each, and larger ones 5 yuan for two.
1 yuan is worth 12 US cents - yes, they were just 12 cents each!

Some tanks were overstocked.

Others held a variety of larger goldfish.

Koi are another favourite fish:

Small koi were only 3 yuan each (about US 36 cents).

8" koi were 20 yuan (US$2.41), and 12" koi or larger were 50y to 150y (US$6 to $18).

Large tropical fish
In their display aquariums Chinese people love to keep large decorative fish. Angelfish are especially popular, and most of the shops had some. The average price of mature angels was 30 yuan (US$3.60):

Lots of angelfish

Discus are also popular. Their prices ranged from 30 or 40 yuan to a whopping 120 yuan (about $US15):

Discus (with rainbows and parrot cichlids).

Many other large fish were on display, especially large South American cichlids such as jaguar cichlids, tilapia, Jack Dempseys, green terrors, red devils, a variety of oscars, and the newly popular hybrid flowerhorn cichlid. There were also arowanas, knifefish, gars, giant gouramis, red-tailed catfish, snakeheads and bristlenose catfish, Their prices were normally in the 40 yuan range (US$5), with some, such as large arowanas, being as much as 120 yuan (US$15):

Lots of large colourful fish.

Red-tailed catfish, Florida gar, and snakehead catfish.

I only noticed a couple of African cichlids. (But I was to see more Africans in Shanghai).

A Chinese shopkeeper back home pointed out that one of the reasons Chinese aquarists keep large carnivorous fish is that they can afford to, since small fish suitable as feeders cost only a couple of cents each. There's even a bonus at the end - if a fish outgrows its tank it can be always be eaten!

Weather loaches were sold as feeders. I am told that Chinese people consider them edible too, and they are used to make a rather muddy-tasting soup.

Small tropical fish
I took more photos of the larger fish because they were more photogenic, but of course I saw lots of colourful smaller fish, such as common livebearers, some barbs, some gouramis, bettas, iridescent sharks, neon and other rainbows, neon tetras, etc. Prices of these were again low - for instance guppies were 2 yuan a pair (US 24 cents), neon rainbows and tiger barbs 3 yuan each, and red swordtails 4 yuan.

Lots of colourful small fish.

Saltwater
Two shops had a few marines:

These were the only marine tanks I saw.

Turtles and tortoises
Turtles and tortoises are commonly sold along with fish. Elsewhere (in Shanghai) I saw a number of different species. But I saw very few reptiles, such as snakes and lizards, in aquarium shops anywhere, and only one here (a bearded dragon). I am sure that reptiles must be kept, and assume they must have their own specialists who do not associate with the fish dealers.

Turtles and tortoises.

Aquatic plants
Chinese people like to keep their smaller decorative fish in beautifully landscaped planted aquariums. There were some nice plants to choose from:

Some plants were sold from basins on the floor.

Other plants were in their own tanks.

Display aquaria
Most of the shops had a display aquarium or two, and some of them sold their fish and plants directly from decorative tanks:

This row of display aquaria served as the outer 'wall' of one of the larger shops.

I particularly liked this fisherman on a rock...

...and this scene with ducks swimming in a stream.

These were stock tanks, but they still looked nice.

Dry goods
Only some of the shops sold expensive mechanical equipment such as filters. They were generally tucked away on upper shelves, as can be seen in the general larger shop photos at the beginning of this article. There were lots of glass and acrylic tanks stocked in an area near the back door of the arcade. Many of the shops sold dry fish foods and chemical products.

Fish bowls and fish foods.

There were no real specialist shops in this arcade. Some might have had a few more goldfish, discus, plants or fish food than others, but they also carried the basic stocks as well, so they all ended up much the same. China's new economy is very much a free enterprise one, and highly competitive. I am sure that when one shop starts to make extra profits from a certain item, the others soon jump in to neutralise that 'edge.'

The fish for sale in this suburban arcade were all highly decorative, apart from a few utilitarian plecos and algae eaters. There were very few of the less colourful "enthusiasts' fish," such as dwarf cichlids and catfish. This must be due to the small size of Chinese living quarters and the influence of Feng Shui. I shall discuss this further in another article.

While I was walking around taking photos, Billy my guide looked for fish for his tank at home. He spent a dollar on an iridescent shark and a couple of platys!

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