'The sweet scent of flowers, and the brilliant hues of blossoms' brought yeanly to a usually dark and dirty section of Kiukiang Road on Feb 5, when" the annual flower market opened, and countrymen from the outskirts of Shanghai set up their stalls along the pavements. Comparatively unknown to foreigners the flower-show is looked—forwa to" by Chinese householders, who visit it to bargain for and purchase a few shrubs and plants with which to decorate their houses for the Spring Festival.
Before the National Government altered the calendar, the Spring Festival marked the beginning of the New Year for the Chinese, and although this has theoretically been abolished, or rather set to coincide with the' foreign New. Year, the average. Chinese. still adheres to the old traditions~and.. the ceremonies which accompanied them. Spring Festival this year falls on Thursday next, and is the time for visits and calls' of respect from relatives and felends alike.
Naturally, the Chinese~ housewife wants her house to be as spic and span as possible, and to be decorated in keeping with the occasion, during the week, she visits' the Mower market, which extends along Kiukiang Road, on both sides, from Shantung Road to about ten' yards fon the other side of Shanse Road.
'A few of the more enterprising, and, possibly, more wealthy, Mower vendors have rented the ground floors of empty shops along the road, and the entire premises are taken up with.the display of flowers, both potted and in shoots, miniature garden sots In flat, china basins, water~ lly bulbs, shrubs and other plants. An occasional bow! of gold-fsh, with 'a quite indifferent cat lying in the sun near by, adds a not incongruous touch,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.