When I am traveling to other countries I like to visit grocery stores and see how much different they are from home.

I have worked in grocery stores and also in the packaging industry, so it is always neat to see how products are displayed.

Last Friday I visited a big grocery store down the road from the hotel.

It was interesting to see eggs stacked up for the shopper to select. They have different varieties. Some are fresh, but others are hard boiled, pickled or aged.

Here you can see individual eggs and in the background there are cartons of eggs.

Here we have packages of eggs and also eggs in net bags. I remember seeing a children’s picture book where a little girl goes to the store and gets eggs in a net bag like this.

Here is a picture of some of the vegetables. A little different variety from what we have back home.

Here is a display of jellos. Of course Jello is a brand name, but jello seems to be a generic term here in China. I asked several of my students and they all called these jellos. Maybe it should be spelled gellos, but a search finds it as jellos.

In any case I saw several kids excitedly selecting their favorite jellos from this colorful display.

Warning: The pictures below show items not usually sold in this format in the US. Some may find them a bit disturbing.

Ok, so this one is not too bad. We have packaged sea food back home. However, you may not find a whole fish like this in an American grocery store.

Have you seen live frogs and turtles at a grocery store? Looks like there are some good frog legs here and maybe you could make a good turtle soup.

Here we have chicken feet. I have seen packaged chicken feet in an Asian Grocery, but have never seen them displayed like this outside of Asia.

Here you can pick  out which chicken feet you want to buy. What are they looking for? The best shape? The most meat? I am not sure. In any case, you can tell if they are fresh.

There are many more interesting things in an Asian grocery, but these are some of the more interesting sights.

Writing this reminds me that I will have to go to the grocery store when I get back home, but not for these items.

Steven