Si Ma Cai highland (Can Cau commune, Si Ma Cai district, Lao Cai province) has existed a unique market which is only held on every Thursday – Can Cau market. As a routine, the ethnic minorities living in the upland follow each other heading to the market together whenever Thursday comes. Can Cau market has become a unique cultural trait which is indispensable for the ethnic groups in Si Ma Cai district. 
 

On a Thursday’s morning, we early departed to Lao Cai city to visit Can Cau market. Among the markets in Lao Cai, Can Cau market still remains its hundred-year traditional living culture of the ethnic minorities such as Mong Hoa, Black Dao, Tay, Nung and Giay. The market is held on the side of the Road 153 - the only way from Bac Ha town to Si Ma Cai town, which is about 100km from Lao Cai city to the north, passing by terraces along the mountain flank covered with cloud around the year. 

When the fog is still covering the ground, there are lots of people hustling to the market on that “only way”. They may ride horses, motorbikes or bicycles to bring along their products, however, they mostly walk there. All the girls look so graceful in their walk and their colorful outfits. The white of fog, the brocade color from the ethnic women’s dresses sway slightly, bring the road to life. 
 

Most of local ethinic villagers walks to the market.

At 7 a.m, Can Cau market is crowded and colorful. The market is divided into quarters of brocade, fruits, agricultural products, tools, domestic animal for production, oriental medicine, alcohol, food stalls and the quarter only for trading buffaloes brought there by the upland people. Each quarter has its own unique trait. The most boisterous area is the food quarter. Each stall sells different simple type of food, such as Thang Co (the dish made of meat, organs of horse, vegetables and special kinds of spices) pho or porridge. There are stalls that only sell boiled pork and alcohol made from corn. Men cluster around hot-piping pan of horse meat, drinking alcohol while having lively discussions. 
 

They sell different things at the market
 

The most outstanding quarter is the brocade one. Brocade products always attract women’s attention with its beauty and garishness. Types of traditional brocade clothes, fabrics are the commodities creating the market’s characteristics. In this market, tourists will get a chance of observing the details on the traditional dresses of the Mong girls which are so splendid, spinning widely like giant butterflies. These are brocade tote weaved by skillful hands of the local girls. The colorful brocade fabric is also an option of many women coming to the market. These productions are displayed simply with just a piece of clothing that spreads on the ground to make up a stall. Apart from dresses, there are also full-color threads, various accessories like beads for decorating outfits. 
 

Colorful outfits of ethnic woman

Coming to Can Cau market is like the ethnic people’s habit. It is not simply for trading and exchanging commodities, but more than that. They come to communicate, meet the people coming from other villages, ask each other’s health or business. Encountering each other in the market, they stop for a talk and chat happily. That makes the atmosphere more bustling. The market is also the place for couples to meet up, express their feelings or even declare their love. Let’s enjoy the bustling atmosphere imbued with upland features of the market. 

Apart from the local, Chinese also come to Can Cau market. They can be both sellers and purchasers. As meeting up at the market many times, they get to know each other well and send the other’s family greetings. The market economy has opened door for the 2 countries to communicate and establish their friendship. The market is more and more bustling with smiles on the faces of buyers and friendly sellers. There are full types of commodities, some from Chinese, some from the lowland delivered there by trucks.  Those local just need to come there if they are in need of saucepans, pots, foot-ware or utensils.
 

The buffalo market quarter is located 50 km away from the main quarter of the market. Perhaps the highland people often use cattle to do farm work so it is really crowded. Some people even call it a “trading floor” of buffaloes because every time the market is held, it has hundreds of buffaloes from the highlands of Bac Ha, Si Ma Cai, Muong Khuong, even from Sin Man district (Ha Giang) and traders from the middle part of Vietnam, who come here looking for a good deal. The great number of strong, muscular, and fat buffaloes standing in the market creates many black spots covering the ground. 

Surrounded by the buffalo “forest”, everyone from sellers to purchasers along with the local and tourists are all curious, coming to see the scene in great quantity. They gather in small groups around the buffaloes to have a closer look, making judgements on them and communicating with each other. The sellers will sell their buffaloes if someone offers a great price, but if not, they will not feel sad at all. They consider it as a chance to show off their animals. Many families bring a herd of 10 buffaloes to the market just to “exhibit” and come back after the market ends.  The sound clip-clop from these buffaloes’ hooves combines with the tinkle of the bells hung around their necks making a unique song of the mountainous area. 
 

 

Famous Can Cau buffalo market in the northern of Vietnam. 

Can Cau buffalo market usually becomes more and more crowded at noon. The upper ground has filled with hundreds of buffaloes. There, people buy buffaloes for ploughing the field, breeding or butchering, sometimes, other cattle dealers buy them for fattening up then re-sell them in another market turn. Fattening buffaloes brings high profit for some villagers. It is not difficult to recognize them through their appearance because they all wear a brocade bag cross their belly. They come to the market, find and buy sickly, malnourished buffaloes and cows with a cheap price from nearly $770 dollars to more than $1000 dollars per one then bring home, fattening them up around 4 to 12 months. After that, they re-sell the animals with a price from nearly $1300 dollars. Thanks to this way that many people have escaped from their poverty, even gotten rich. Besides, many households can gain more income from planting grass to sell to those dealers, delivery cost, taking care of these buffaloes and other services. 

It is not only for dealers to bring highland buffaloes to delta, Can Cau market also attracts many tourists, especially foreigners. At the present, the buffaloes are not simple for production to the people in Lao Cai, they now become commodities, a source of high economic value. The buffalo market’s establishment has contributed to the economic development of the locality, has given many households jobs and business. 

In afternoon, after the dealers gather enough buffaloes, they drive them into their trucks. It’s also when the local finish buying their essential items. They call their friends to gather around for drinking in horse meat stalls, promising to meet each other in the next Saturday in Can Cau market. Many people continue streaming out of the market, end this week busy market turn. 
 

People gather at food stall for a drink after a long day, celebrate succesful trades.

Lao Cai province had a scheme of developing Lao Cai tourism, in which market tourism development is one of contents for forming the province’s typical tourism products. The actualization of this policy, many synchronous solutions have been implemented such as the construction of transport and the market infrastructure. At the same time, being active in preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values of the upland ethnic people, creating conditions for the local, the market’s subject, to benefit from tourism, commercial activities. 

Leaving Can Cau market, we are all happy to experience one day there. This is an unforgettable memory of the traditionally cultural market’s unique traits of the upland ethnic people in the border area.