Lung Phinh Market

Ten kilometers southwest of the town of Bắc Hà, along the road that runs to Si Ma Cai, a small market meets every Sunday. This is the Lùng Phình market.

It stands right beside the offices of Lùng Phình commune. This is the Bắc Hà area of Lào Cai province. The people set out early from the villages all around. Some walk. Some ride horses. Some carry vegetables or embroidered cloth on their backs, and some lead their animals along. They are Hmong and Giáy. The Tày and Phù Lá come too. All are communities that have lived together on this high plateau for many generations.

Lùng Phình is one of the smaller markets around the famous Bắc Hà market. The main Bắc Hà market meets on Sunday. The Cán Cấu market in Si Ma Cai meets on Saturday. Lùng Phình is the Sunday gathering place for the southwestern part of the plateau. The main Bắc Hà market has grown into a large tourist attraction. Lùng Phình has kept the rhythm of a highland market that sits closer to the daily life of the people who live here.

The market has the sections that a highland market usually has. In the farm section there are vegetables, herbs and seasonal goods from the fields on the slopes. In the brocade section there are skirts, shirts, scarves and bags that the people weave and embroider themselves. Another corner holds livestock and poultry. The food area serves highland phở, thắng cố, and the other dishes familiar from Hmong and Giáy kitchens. Thắng cố is a traditional dish of the Hmong, a stew of horse, buffalo or beef cooked with organ meats and herbs.

A local document says the name Lùng Phình is explained as meaning "Flat Dragon" in the Quan Hỏa language. That is a popular explanation, not an official finding of linguists.

The administrative map has changed too. Resolution 37 of the Lào Cai provincial People's Council, issued in April 2025, arranged 19 older units in the Bắc Hà area into six new ones, and Lùng Phình commune is one of the six. It is no longer a small commune standing alone. Yet the market goes on at the same rhythm as before.

The Lùng Phình market is part of everyday life for the people of the plateau. People come down to sell what they grew, wove and raised, to meet friends from distant villages, and to eat a hot bowl before the climb home.

The market is smaller than the main one at Bắc Hà, and that is exactly why it feels closer to the real life of the plateau. At midday, when the sun is high, people begin to pack up their loads and lead their horses back toward the villages. The bells on the horses ring along the red dirt road, fainter and fainter, until the plateau is quiet again, as if there had never been a market at all.