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As a freelancer I often find myself chasing ideas before they become stories. A lot of these ideas pop up just from simply living and working in China.

Recently I noticed that a lot of my favorite Xiaochis (小吃 ) were increasing their food prices. For those not in China, a Xiaochi literally means “small eats,” refering to hole-in-the wall restaurants often run by mom and pop. I eat at these type of establishments frequently – both because I like them and also because its a fantastic way to save money. Eight steamed dumplings in my hutong normally cost RMB 4 (about 61 cents). However, last week I noticed there price went up to RMB 6.

While I’m still happy to give my local neighbors RMB 6 (91 cents) for a meal — percentage-wise it is in fact a huge increase in price. This got me thinking about photographing food in Beijing and specifically raised the question — how on earth do you feed a city of 22 million people? Where does the food come from, and what would one of these large food markets look like?

After working primarily with video as of late (3 more videos on there way soon!), last night I got a burst of motivated to go take some still photographs at one of the world’s largest wholesale food markets — officially known as Xinfadi Agri-product Wholesale Market, but known locally simply as Xinfadi.

Above, is this massive market which looks like a city itself.

I’d been by this market once before but hadn’t really spent time there when it was at its busiest. Interestingly enough, this market is most crowded at around 4:00 am; when restaurants, families and markets travel to the far south of Beijing to get their supplies from what appears to be a self-sustained city filled with produce, fruit, meats and grains. Xinfadi never sleeps: according to state-run China Daily the market is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is also said to supply up to 70 percent of Beijing’s vegetables and 80 percent of its fruit.

So — I figured the best time to go was at 4am. Fortunately for me, it (or perhaps the state) decided it would be the best time for Beijing’s first snow of the year. I decided that was not going to stop me and so I jumped in a cab to travel an hour south of the city and started snooping around.

The maze of food spreads in all directions. In the dark, it has a seemingly shady characteristic — as if everyone was doing something illicit. In dark corners, behind trucks, vendors and customers slyly exchanged large stacks of bills. People whisper as they bargain so as not to let other customers know the price they are getting.

Some vendors were asleep in their vans, while others chop endless piles of meat. In short, this is how Beijing feeds 22 million people.

After collected these images and also some video — its clear there is a story here, whether it is on the city of produce itself or rising food prices.

We’ll see if what started as me chasing an idea, can turn into a story … stay tuned.