The antique market along Chongqing Road is Changchun's main destination for browsing historical objects, old books, Mao-era memorabilia, and the general flow of northeast China's material history. The stalls cover the full range from genuine antiques to reproduction work, and the buyers range from serious collectors to curious visitors.
The Manchukuo-era objects that appear here — coins, stamps, documents, photographs, small domestic items — are historically specific to this part of China and are not found in markets further south. Even if you buy nothing, the market gives a sense of the city's accumulated history in physical form: the objects that people saved through all the upheavals and that eventually find their way here.
Best visited on weekend mornings when the selection is largest and the stall-holders most willing to negotiate.