Morning market gives a taste of tradition

Although they had planned to take a break during Spring Festival, they only rested for two days before reopening their stall.

"Tourists have been increasing since New Year's Day, especially during Spring Festival. I've never seen so many people at the Xiaoheyan morning market," Cao says.

The couple sells candied haws in winter and grilled skewers in summer, hardly taking a break throughout the year except for a few days during Spring Festival.

They live in an apartment building next to the morning market, waking up before sunrise to start work. They set up their stall at 3:30 am for candied haws and even earlier for grilled skewers, sometimes working all night without any sleep, Cao says.

After finishing work around 9 in the morning, they were finally able to grab a warm breakfast. After returning home, they still had to wash the haws, remove their seeds, and skewer them before taking a well-deserved rest.

"As the weather warms up, by the end of February, we won't be able to sell candied haws anymore," Cao says.

High school senior student Liu Xinyuan and her classmates from Benxi made a special trip to Shenyang the day before school started, and they got up early to explore the Xiaoheyan morning market. After patiently waiting in line for the renowned "donkey rolls", Liu indulged in some finger-shaped pancakes and then treated herself to a candied haw from Cao's stall.

"We don't have a morning market as big as this in Benxi, so I just had to come and see it for myself," she explains.