How to Use Xianyu (闲鱼): Second-Hand Buying & Selling (2026)

Xianyu (闲鱼, Idle Fish) is Alibaba's second-hand marketplace and China's default answer to Craigslist, eBay and Facebook Marketplace combined. To use it in Shanghai you need the app, a Chinese phone number and a real-name verified Alipay account. Payment sits in escrow until you confirm the item is fine, and delivery is either courier or a same-city meetup. Listings are in Chinese, but translation tools close the gap. Half my apartment came from Xianyu and the other half will return to it the day I move. Furniture, a barely used air purifier, a road bike, concert tickets, someone's abandoned gym membership: it is all there, usually at a third of the new price. Here is the full setup, the buying ritual and the seller's playbook for when your own lease ends. What is Xianyu and why does everyone use it? Xianyu is Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer resale platform, deeply plugged into Taobao and Alipay. When someone buys a new sofa on Taobao , the old one goes on Xianyu the same weekend. Because it rides on Alipay's real-name system and escrow, strangers transact with far more confidence than on classifieds boards, and prices in a city like Shanghai are aggressive: expat turnover means a…