Keo Lom Market and Pass

Điện Biên Đông is one of the poorest areas of Điện Biên province. It is remote, its roads climb steep passes, and few visitors come. And here the Hmong people of Keo Lôm village did something practical and remarkable. They built a market.

It is not the traditional kind of market, held under a tree or on open ground. It is a solid, permanent market, with a market hall of 235 square meters. There is an area for farm produce, an area for local OCOP specialties, a food area, a handicraft area, and a cultural space where people dance to the Hmong khèn, a wind instrument. The whole site covers more than 4,100 square meters.

The market was funded through the national program to build new rural communities, with a total of 3 billion dong. Work began in October 2022 and finished in April 2023. The market officially opened in September that year.

Since then, the Keo Lôm market has been held every Saturday.

What makes a highland market special is not its list of goods. It is the people who come to it.

On a Saturday morning in Keo Lôm, the Hmong stream in from the villages around the mountains. The women wear bright, hand-embroidered clothing. The men bring the farm specialties of the highlands. Children follow their parents with wide eyes, looking at the stalls. The sound of the khèn rises from the performance space. People meet, buy and sell, and trade stories.

Many rural areas of the Northwest lost this kind of market as they urbanized. In Keo Lôm it has only just been made. Or rather, it has been given back a space it deserves.

Among the stalls are those for OCOP products. OCOP is short for One Commune One Product, a state policy that encourages each locality to develop its own distinctive product. In Điện Biên Đông, such products can be wild honey, sticky rice from the hillside fields, highland medicinal herbs, and hand-embroidered brocade, made by the very people who sell them.

After the market, if the weather is kind, visitors can go up to the peak of Chóp Ly on the Keo Lôm pass for the view. The pass is about 20 kilometers long and winds with the shape of the land. At the top, on a clear day, the view drops away to terraced fields and valleys. And with luck, at the right time, there may be a sea of clouds.

But the word "if" matters here. The sea of clouds does not come on a schedule. Some days the sky is clear, and some days the mountain hides in mist. If the air is clear, ridge after ridge of mountains stretches away into the distance. If the clouds roll in, they are a gift from nature, offered as a bonus.

Keo Lôm does not have a history of hundreds of years, like many of the old markets in the Northwest. This permanent market only opened in 2023. But Hmong culture here is very old. So are the farm products of this land. And the wish to build a worthy meeting place for the community is very clear.

On a good Saturday morning in the high mountains, the khèn sounds on the wind and the brocade glows in bright colors across the market. Above it, clouds may wrap around the peak of Chóp Ly, over the high pass of Điện Biên Đông.