Grocery Shopping in Chinese: Wet Market Phrases & 一斤
The supermarket is easy. The wet market (菜市场) is where your Chinese learns to walk. My first trip, in Chengdu, I asked the tomato seller 多少钱？ while pointing at her entire stall — she laughed, quoted me a price for everything, and I spent the rest of the morning learning the difference between 一个 (one of) and 一斤 (a weight).
Markets are loud, fast, and full of numbers — which makes them the best tone and listening drill in China. Here’s the script.
One Word That Changes Everything: 斤
Chinese food is weighed in 斤 (jīn): 1 斤 = 500 grams, a hair over 1 pound. Half a kilo. Ask for 半斤 (bàn jīn) or 一斤 (yì jīn) — note that 一 becomes a fourth tone here because 斤 starts with a first tone. 两斤 (two jin) is roughly a kilo. If you don’t care, just point and say 来一斤 (lái yì jīn, “give me one jin”).
The Market Script (Memorize These 6 Lines)
| Situation | Chinese | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask the price | 多少钱一斤？ | duō shao qián yì jīn? | How much per jin? |
| Point at something | 这个怎么卖？ | zhè ge zěn me mài? | How is this sold? |
| Order it | 来两斤 | lái liǎng jīn | Give me two jin |
| Ask to weigh | 称一下 | chēng yí xià | Weigh it, please |
| Haggle lightly | 能便宜点儿吗？ | néng pián yi diǎnr ma? | Can you make it a bit cheaper? |
| It’s too much | 太贵了 | tài guì le | Too expensive |
Prices are said as 三块五 (sān kuài wǔ) for 3.5 yuan — 块 (kuài, “buck”) is the spoken word for yuan. Expect veggies around 2-8 元/斤 and pork in the 15-25 元/斤 range across most cities in 2026; prices vary wildly by market, which is exactly why 多少钱一斤 is the highest-value phrase in the store.
12 Words for the Produce Section
- 白菜 bái cài — napa cabbage
- 土豆 tǔ dòu — potato
- 西红柿 xī hóng shì — tomato
- 黄瓜 huáng gua — cucumber
- 鸡蛋 jī dàn — egg
- 猪肉 zhū ròu — pork
- 牛肉 niú ròu — beef
- 鱼 yú — fish
- 苹果 píng guǒ — apple
- 香蕉 xiāng jiāo — banana
- 新鲜 xīn xiān — fresh (you’ll hear it constantly)
- 甜 tián / 酸 suān / 辣 là — sweet / sour / spicy
Don’t memorize the whole list at once. Pick the three things you actually eat and learn those first — the market rewards repetition, since you’ll say 来一斤 exactly the same way every week.
Paying Without Saying “Cash”
Almost all market stalls in 2026 pay by QR scan: the vendor holds up a code, you scan it (扫码, sǎo mǎ). The payment runs through WeChat Pay or Alipay — both third-party platforms, not part of this site — and you’ll want a bag: 拿个袋子 (ná ge dài zi, “give me a bag”), often 袋子一毛钱, a dime.
The Tone Drill Hiding in the Market
The numbers are where the tones live. 四 (sì, four) and 十 (shí, ten) sound nearly identical to fresh ears, and vendors talk fast. My fix: repeat the vendor’s price back loudly — 三块五？ — before paying. It buys you a second to parse, the vendor confirms, and you just practiced tones on real speech. I’ve sent every student to the market with this one habit; it works because you can’t fake a third tone when the price depends on it.
Start at the supermarket if a loud market intimidates you, then graduate. The script is identical; only the volume differs.