SAPA MARKET
Welcome
to Sapa Market in Sapa town Vietnam
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Sapa market opened every day
Sapa market located at the center of Sapa town and and is opened every day.
But it is most crowded on Saturday late afternoon and evening.
Before
the French built Sapa town into a town, the market place was on the
sandy ground about 7 km east of the town now, at the junction of the
main road to Lao Cai and the trail to Ta Phin Village.
Until
1980s, when the population of the region was small and transportation
was very poor, It was really hard to communicate among villages, the
market offered probably the only chances once a week for H’mong and Red
Zao peoples to meet others.
The main market took place on Sunday but
many went to the market the afternoon before because their villages were
too far and it took many hours to go on foot. Of course there were no
accommodation for rent then, so for passing the night they gathered
around fire talking, playing their traditional music, dancing… Gradually
these activities attracted the youngsters from villages near by to come
and turned the market into a dating place for lovers.
Nowadays, due to
fast development in the region to make it easy for locals to communicate
among villages, as a result, the market in Sapa has been becoming less
important spiritually. However, it is still crowded every weekend and
worthwhile to spend few hours to join local for a life experience.