Morning-market hours
The old city before nine o'clock
For three hours every morning, the wall city runs on a different clock: vegetable trikes, walnut sacks, breakfast steam. This short loop catches two markets and two breakfasts, and is over by the time the sights open.
Stop 1 · Market
Arrive around 7:00 at Xiaonanmen — the little south gate's morning market. Cash and QR both work; the crowd thins fast after 8:30.
Stop 2 · Dish
Breakfast of the market workers: hulatang, the peppery pepper-and-beef soup. It reads as soup and lands as a weather event — sweat it out.
Stop 3 · Dish
Second breakfast nearby: guantang baozi. Bite a hole, sip the broth, then dip. Point-and-order works fine.
Stop 4 · Market
Loop east to Dongcangmen, the smaller lane market, for a quieter last lap. By 9:30 it's over — the city clocks in, you've already eaten twice.