The 90-year-old Binh Tay market of District 6 is busier than ever with the Lunar New Year or Tet holiday only weeks away. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Wholesale and retail markets in Ho Chi Minh City are busier thanever with the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday only weeks away.
District 1’s famous Ben Thanh, one of the city’s oldest markets, is seeing morethan double the average number of people on normal weekends.
About 3,000 stalls began preparing for the year’s biggest business season lastmonth, stocking thousands of Vietnamese items, including food, garments,footwear and handicrafts.
Cao Trung Tin, deputy head of the market’s managing board, said that traditionalVietnamese silk and cotton clothing, handicrafts and foodstuffs like friedseafood, which can be stored for months, are favoured by locals and tourists.
“We attract more than 7,000 Vietnamese and foreign visitors a day during themonth before Tet,” he said.
Ben Thanh market began when street vendors gathered together near the Ben NgheRiver in the early 17th century.
It was established by the French colonialists after they took over the Gia DinhCitadel under the Nguyen Dynasty in 1859.
In 1912, the market was moved to a new building on a land of more than 13,000square metres located on what are now the streets of Phan Boi Chau, Phan ChuTrinh and Le Thanh Ton.
Clothes including ao dai (traditional Vietnamese long dress) made fromdomestic fabrics like silk and chiffon are the favourite products of foreignand local visitors.
"My shop offers Vietnamese clothes from just 150,000 VND (7 USD) to350,000 VND (16 USD). Ao dai in traditional materials are 500,000 VND (23USD) for females and 700,000 VND (33 USD) for males," said Nguyen Mai Anh,a garment shopkeeper who speaks English, Chinese and Japanese.
"My customers, particularly Japanese and Korean visitors, like Vietnamesedesigns because they are traditional and the price is reasonable,” she said.
Anh hopes that her income “will triplecompared with previous months” in the run-up to Tet.
In Ben Thanh, customers are free to bargain but many vendors offer fixedprices.
Wholesale markets Binh Tay in District 6 and Soai Kinh Lam in the Cho Lon (BigMarket) in District 5 are also busier than usual.
About 1,500 shops at the 90-year-old Binh Tay market sell a variety of qualitygoods, including art objects, souvenirs, clothes and traditional Vietnamesedried foodstuff and medicinal herbs.
Shop owners allow their regular dealers from the provinces of the Mekong RiverDelta to postpone payments after Tet, which begins on February 5.
“My shop offers traditional sugared products or mut, made from kumquat,lotus, coconut, squash or sweet potato, made by farmers in southern provinces.Traders from the north and central regions began ordering early this month,”said Hoa Lam, a Chinese-Vietnamese shop owner.
His shop offers competitive prices of 120,000 VND (6 USD)-190,000 VND (10 USD)per kilogramme, which are 5-7 percent higher than last month.
Shops offering vang ma (votive paper) are also busier as Vietnamese burnthe paper items during Tet to wish departed loved ones or forsakenspirits a happy and lucky year.
Rows of miniature paper replicas of consumer goods such as houses, motorbikesand other luxuries are bestsellers.
Binh Tay market was built on 25,000 sq.m of land in 1928. It was designed by aFrench architect who mixed traditional Chinese and East Asia architecturalstyles.
It re-opened recently after renovation, whichcost 104 billion VND (4.5 million USD).
At Soai Kinh Lam market, 500 shops offer clothes and handmade accessories. Themarket has seen 3,000, or double the normal number of Vietnamese and foreigntourists, on the weekend, according to the market’s managing board.
"I began my business career here when my mother turned over her businessto me five years ago. Our profit has fallen by 25 per cent compared to before2010, when there weren’t many shopping malls," said shop owner Hong QuangMinh, who developed his family business for 20 year at Soai Kinh Lam.
Minh said Vietnamese, particularly young people, like silks imported from theRepublic of Korea, China and Thailand, while foreign visitors often buytraditional Vietnamese clothes and handmade bags and shoes.
Minh said that tourism development had brought more foreign customers to themarket in the last few years.
"We know that Soai Kinh Lam is not only a brand name but a cultural symbolof Cho Lon," he said.-VNS/VNA
VNA
