Can Cau Buffalo Market In Bac Ha

By Author: careca mongolana
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The famous Can Can Saturday Market is a weekly meeting in the middle of Can Chu Su slope, Can Cau commune, Si Ma Cai district of Sapa town. From early morning, people from all parts of the district and communes in Bac Ha, Muong Khuong, Bao Thang, Bat Xat flock here, even people in Sin Man district, Ha Giang and the Chinese as well.

After October when the crop has been harvested, most families have people going to market, not only adults but also children and old people, making the market like a festifal. Special thing in Can Cau Market is, in addition to local tourists and foreign visitors, most of the participants are of Hmong and Dzay people, but trading in the market is conducted with business practices of the Dzao people.

Can Cau Market is divided into three areas, of which the largest place is used for trading cattle. Although there are cows, goats, horses, but most of them are buffaloes. Therefore, Can Cau Market is called buffalo market. As opposed to a noisy spontaneous market in your imagination with voices of bargaining and bartering, visitors to Can Cau Buffalo Market only hear murmuring sounds of negotiation ...
... and evaluation between sellers and buyers.

The mountainous ethnic people are honest so sellers never put a high price, buyers bargain for good luck. Buffalo owners and customers speak just enough for each other. Before purchasing, customers often consider very carefully, meticulously every ox sold. The buffalo are selected for big feet, firm spine, wide opened horns and slender belly.

Price for a buffalo in Can Cau Market range from 6 to 20 million Vietnam Dong (300 - 1000 usd), depending on black or white skin, male or female, good looking or not, and purchased for plowing or meat. As the Northwest 's largest cattle market, a market day has nearly hundred buffalo bought and sold. Consequently, very few people going to buy buffaloes have to go home empty-handed.

When the deal is completed, the sellers and buyers go to a hot Thang Co (a kind of soup) stall and sip some rice wine, at the end of the market day the purchased buffaloes wear a pine-shaped bronze bell and follow the new owners to village, The music sounds every step all the way home.

Although not as famous as the cattle market, but the food and local produce stalls, household items are very popular with tourists. Locals call this is a market for women, for the men to Can Cau market primarily to purchase buffaloes or eat Thang Co.

As a popular destination in north Vietnam, international visitors cannot miss Can Cau market in their Sapa tours, most impressive in this market area is the colorful dresses of flower Hmong people for sale, you will be surprised to see sophisticated designs of the dresses, some of them take up to a year to make, no wonder that the price is up to millions. In addition, visitors are easily attracted by the jewelery stalls with all kinds of rings, bracelets, earrings...carved beautifully.

In the food stalls, beside Thang Co and corn wine there are many shops with great dishes, something similar to the noodle soup in the cities, but the dark -colored bread which can be eaten with boiled pork stew or broth from the bones. Also a lot of bread made from corn flour, cassava, sticky rice...

Like other fairs, Can Cau Market is also an opportunity for couples dating and chatting with friends. They are not in the market for the purpose of buying and selling but mainly to entertain and communicate with each other. Therefore, Can Cau market is not merely a trading activity but has become a distinctive culture of people in the north west.