Muong Hum

When the mountain road crosses its highest point and the valley begins to open ahead, people in Bát Xát call the spot the sky gate into Mường Hum. Below lies a valley with a stream running through it, terraced fields, and villages laid out along the mountainsides. On a Sunday, people carrying loads of goods can be seen heading for the center of the commune from every direction.

The Mường Hum market meets every Sunday. Here the Hà Nhì, Hmong and Red Dao peoples come together. The Dao Tuyển and the Giáy come too, all from 14 villages in the commune. The Hà Nhì are one of Vietnam's ethnic groups, and they live in the high mountains of the north. People also come from nearby communes such as Mường Vi and Dền Sáng. Y Tý is another. Once a week they come down to market with what they have grown, raised and woven themselves.

The commune lies in the Bát Xát area, in a valley about 60 kilometers northwest of Lào Cai city. This position makes it the natural meeting point of the whole Bát Xát highlands. It is not a city and not a small hamlet. It is a middle point that ties many communities together through a market that has stood for generations.

The easiest specialty to find is bánh rán. These are soft, fragrant fried cakes made from glutinous rice flour or wheat flour, filled with mung bean, fried golden and rolled in sesame. On market day the cake section has seven or eight stalls, and the smell of cakes fresh from the pan drifts from one end of the market to the other. There is also thắng cố, a stew of meat and offal cooked with mountain spices. Beyond that come multicolored sticky rice made from local glutinous rice, wild greens, honey, and vegetables and other produce that the farmers grew themselves.

One corner of the market is given to handicrafts and silver jewelry. Carved silver from the villages of the commune, especially from Séo Pờ Hồ, is a traditional craft that silversmiths make entirely by hand. It is used in daily life and in the ceremonies and customs of the people who wear it. It is not a souvenir made in bulk.

Mường Hum is also a stopping point on the road up to Y Tý. One of the roads from Lào Cai to Y Tý passes through it. From there the road continues up through Dền Sáng and Sàng Ma Sáo.

People come to meet those they know, to buy what they need and to sell what they have to spare. Talk and laughter, the clear ring of carved silver, the steam rising from thắng cố, the colors of the clothes of people pouring in from 14 villages: together they show the valley as it truly is. It is a place where people really live and really meet, week after week, for many generations.