The first wave of culture shock experienced by many expats in China occurs when they shop for groceries. People who come for only a few weeks or less generally eat all their meals out, so shopping for food isn’t necessary for them. But anyone who plans to stay awhile eventually has to figure out how to buy the kind of groceries they are used preparing and eating.
For basic meat, vegetables and bread, any supermarket will do. Veggies and fruit are also sold all over the city in street markets. But when expats enter their first large Beijing supermarket, expecting to find everything they had back home, they are often disappointed. Even Wal-Mart is different here, except for its import section. Other well-known shops that carry limited western foods include Jenny Lou’s and Carrefour, although the latter only has one isle of import goods. Most expats, however, are yet to discover the Lion Mart (pictured right), although they’ve probably ridden past on many times. This little shop is so much like the corner grocery store back home.
When I was a kid in the countryside in southern Michigan, my brothers and I would often ride our bikes to Doc’s Market, l little grocery store that had almost everything. Doc’s wasn’t as cheap as the supermarket in town, but they had all my favorite snacks, and the best cheese I’ve ever eaten. Now, living in Beijing, the Lion Mart is the nearest thing I’ve found to Doc’s Market.
Like Doc’s Market, the Lion Mart is not cheap, but they have lots of things I can’t find in the city’s large supermarkets. Like some of the bigger stores, they have pre-packaged cheese, but they also have a nice array of bulk cheeses. Just like back home at Doc’s, these cheeses are cut to order and sold by weight. My favorite mild cheese at the Lion is Gouda, but they also have cheddar, bleu and others.
Lion Mart carries many other products that make westerners feel at home. For example, the isle of canned goods includes several varieties of Campbell’s soups, pasta sauces and other delights. The counter with chips really looks more like a store back home, with real Pringles, Doritos, Cheese Puffs, Frito Corn Chips, tortilla chips and much more.
Breakfast cereal and other sweets are also abundant in the Lion Mart. They sell cookies, crackers, granola bars, and to by surprise they even have Pop Tarts (pictured right)!
There are several conveniently located Lion Mart stores in Beijing. The one pictured here is in Chaoyang District, about a five minute walk east from the Liangmaqiao Subway station. So an expensive airline ticket isn’t needed to find these western favorites. All you need is a 2 RMB subway ticket.
