Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

    A flea market was recently set up at Donghai City Plaza in Futian District for Chinese and Korean children to exchange their used books, toys or clothes last weekend at the China-Korean Cultural Carnival.

    The flea market was part of a three-day event at the plaza where Chinese and Korean residents put up stalls to sell Korean food and products and to display traditional Korean culture.

    At the flea market, around 20 families from the residential compound set up stalls to sell their used items, mainly children’s books, magazines and toys.

    Lim Jiwan, a 12-year-old Korean boy, was one of the most popular “vendors” at the flea market. He told Shenzhen Daily in fluent Chinese that he had earned over 200 yuan by selling his toys with his little brother in only about 40 minutes.

    “It’s a fun thing to do when you can sell out the toys you played with at a young age and used the money to buy things from the others,” said Lim, who bought puzzles and tapes from his Chinese neighbors.

    Most of the toys Lim sold were Lego robots sold in packs for 50 yuan each. Lim said that even though he liked his toys very much, he was too old for his toys now.

    Lim said he would give a quarter of the money he earned to his mother, a quarter to his little brother, keep a quarter for himself and the last quarter of the money would be donated to people that need aid.

    Two pairs of Korean sisters were also selling their used clothes, toys and other items in a space next to Lim. They said girl things were not as easy to sell as boy things.

    The event was jointly organized by Xiangmihu Subdistrict, the Donghai Community Work Station and an arts education group in the community.

    According to the organizers, the flea market was not only a chance for Chinese and Korean children living in the community to communicate with each other but also an opportunity to stress the importance of recycling and reusing items.