Zay Cho (many other English spellings including Zegyo, Zaygyo, Zeigyo)  in the Bamar language means “cheap rice”. It is the name given to the major market in Mandalay and is one of Myanmar’s oldest.  It includes a massive covered area like Yangon’s Bogyoke Aung Sang Market,  as well as the surrounding streets (from 84th. to 86th. Streets  and between 26th and 28th) where produce and other consumable goods spill out onto the streets themselves.

stopped for traffic on one of Zay Cho’s crowded streets

It can be a chaotic scene – and also one full of life.  Like market areas in other Asian cities I have visited, it provides fantastic opportunities for photographers wanting to capture a little of the colourful and dynamic upfolding of another shopping day in Mandalay. I spent over an hour walking around the open-air street market taking in the scene.

Mandalay’s Zay Cho street market – somehow, order in chaos!

Walk through the Zay Cho area  you will see fruits, vegetables, fish and meats, grains and legumes and so much more spilling out on the streets. Behind various baskets and stacks and full trays or tables someone – most always a female or two-  is sitting, ready to make a sale.  And nearby, if it is a street vendor, is often the motorcycle or bicycle that brought the goods or the people to their spot in the market.

Zay Cho Market – vendors wait for customers

fish seller and her goods

scales ready to weigh the greens for sale

Zay Cho tables with bananas, bananas, bananas

Zay Cho produce sellers sit on their mats

Zay Cho fish for sale

piles of meat ready to go

woman watching over chickens

a traffic jam on a Zay Cho street not meant for buses!

monks and tourists in the midst of a traffic jam

sit-down street-side restaurant in Mandalay’s Zay Cho Market area

box and trays of eggs

dog finds some bones to chew on

another dog surveys the scene

yet another dog – this one without a collar

a canal running through the Zay Cho market area

fish and limes for sale at Zay Cho Market

woman with weigh scale

a Zay Cho vendor contemplates the scene

more produce for sale at Zay Cho

the tomato stand at Zay Cho street market

cornering the market for peppers

lemons for sale at Zay Cho street market

crowded street in Cho Zay’s market area

one of the streets on the perimeter of the market area