Living Worlds
The Kaifeng night market along a canal with an arched bridge, steaming food stalls and lanterns.

950–1350 · Kaifeng, about 1100

Night Market

The market never closes.

The law of Night Market

The market never closes.

Kaifeng, about 1100: perhaps the largest city in the world. Its curfew is gone, so its markets run late into the night beside four canals.

A woman serving dumplings from a steaming stall at the Kaifeng night market.

A life in Night Market · composite, based on the record

A cook, thirty-five

Her dumplings are gone by the second watch. She lights another lantern and starts again.

Meanwhile, in the same age

Worlds joined by sea and road

A double-hulled voyaging canoe with pandanus sails on the open Pacific at dusk.

Which world will you live in?