In the past, this was a booming hour for business.

But these days, Li and nearly 300 other stallholders in the market have seen their business plummet on a daily basis.

Xinyuan Market is one of the biggest trade centres for snake, fowl and other animals. Opened six years ago, it is located about 20 kilometres northwest of the centre of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province. There are a few other smaller animal markets in the neighbourhood. The area boasts around 1,000 traders engaged in the business of providing an array of live animals to the local catering industry.

"I still hold a glimmer of hope for a recovery," said Li, "that's why I haven't left."

But quite a number of traders have shut up shop and either headed for their hometowns in neighbouring Hunan Province or the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region or are making plans to do so.

The exodus began last Monday, when scientists announced that they had found a possible link between civets and SARS.

On May 23 it was announced that research by experts with the University of Hong Kong and the Centre for Disease Control in Shenzhen revealed that a SARS-like coronavirus had been found in animal samples.

Researchers cautioned about drawing hurried conclusions. However, the news had a potent effect on trade. Business went flat, even though local industrial and commercial administration officials, who have been making regular rounds in the market, say that none of the traders at Xinyuan have gone down with SARS.

In each of the market's four 100-metre-long, 8-metre-wide corridors lined with plastic-covered stalls, one-third were locked with rolling iron doors. The rest, like Li's, are open but doing almost no business.

Sitting on four stools around a table, a group play cards. Yawning is common these days.

"It wasn't like this before the announcement that a SARS-like virus was detected in the animals," Li said.

"Our business licences were collected by officials from the Industrial and Commercial Administration days ago," said Wang Guoqing, who has a neighbouring stall to Li and specializes in dealing with masked palm civets.

The licence was jointly issued by the local Industrial and Commercial Administration and Forestry Bureau.

Originally from Hunan Province, Li started his business selling and buying snakes, fowl and civets some 20 years ago.

He lives with his wife and child in Guangzhou, but has to send money home to help support an extended family that includes his grandmother.

Li insisted that he and other vendors "know very clearly what is permitted and what's on the national list for protection," he said.

"Just one night everything changed," he said, adding that at present he is suffering a daily loss of about 200 yuan (US$24.2) in rent and other fees alone, before even taking into account his earning losses.

Meanwhile, a restaurant, one of his customers, still owes him 108,000 yuan (US$13,043), for a consignment of snakes.

When the link between SARS and animals was made the restaurant took dishes such as snake and civet off its menu. Unable to recoup its money by selling such food, the restaurant is not in a position to pay Li, he said with frustration.

Like Li, Wang Guoqing, also from Hunan, said he is the main provider for his extended rural family.

Wang claims that most of the civets in the market are raised on the farms, "whose fathers or grandfathers are the wild ones.

"Raising civets is just like raising pigs, very easy," said Wang, who in the past occasionally kept a number of civets.

"By nature they like to eat fruit, but the raised ones also can be fed with rice, adding some sugar into it would be better."

From his experience and knowledge civets do not easily get ill.

The cost of raising a palm civet is about 400 yuan (US$48.3) a year. Civets are ready for sale after only a year's nursing. The smallest weigh about 1 kilogram while the largest can weigh up to 7 kilograms. Palm civets sell at about 60 yuan (US$7.25) for half a kilogram, with top prices reaching of 80 yuan (US$9.6), Wang said.

Right now an anxious Wang is at a loss as to what to do and indeed what the future will hold.

Next to the Xinyuan Market stands an aquatic products market, but a look inside reveals a similar scene to Xinyuan -- stagnant and lifeless.

(China Daily June 2, 2003)