Sin Ho Market

For many families, reaching this market takes a whole day of travel.

It is not because no market is nearer. It is because this is the Sìn Hồ market. Red Hmong families come down from Chăn Lưa. Dao families come from Phương Xô Lin. The Phù Lá of Pu Sam Cáp come as well. For all of them, the Sunday market is the most important event of the week. There is no reason to miss it.

The market meets every Sunday morning in Sìn Hồ town, in Lai Châu Province. The town lies more than 1,500 meters above sea level and stays cool all year, with an average temperature of only about 18 degrees Celsius. It is about 60 kilometers from Lai Châu city by the mountain pass road.

Sìn Hồ is sometimes called the "Little Sa Pa of Lai Châu", because the climate and the scenery are alike. But the market here is not like Sa Pa's at all. It is more natural, less shaped by tourism, and so more true to itself.

A first-time visitor will surely notice the color of the clothing first.

The Red Hmong wear costumes that are bright red at the top and across the chest, with finely worked embroidery and a distinctive headscarf. They come down from the villages of Chăn Lưa and Làng Mô. Some must set out the evening before, to reach the market early in the morning.

The Dao wear something quite different: heavily embroidered, thick, and in many colors. The Flower Hmong and the Phù Lá from Pu Sam Cáp add colors of their own. In the highland mist of the morning, the costumes of all these peoples glow more brightly than anyone expects.

But color is not the most striking thing here. It is the way people trade.

At the Sìn Hồ market, buyers usually do not bargain hard. The seller names an honest price, the buyer pays and takes the goods, and both thank each other.

This is not because people here are easygoing, or do not know how to bargain. It is a culture of community exchange that has taken shape over hundreds of years. Buyer and seller will meet again next week, and the week after that, and trust matters more than saving a little money.

The livestock area is a distinctive part of the market. There are small local pigs that roam free on the mountains. People carry them down in their arms or tuck them into baskets. There are chickens that run free, goats, and sometimes even calves. For a highland household, selling a pig or a calf brings a considerable part of a month's income.

From June to August, the Sìn Hồ plum is in season. It is the most famous specialty of Lai Châu. The fruit is large, with deep purple skin and juicy golden flesh, sweet with a little sourness. Its fragrance is special, thanks to the conditions high in the mountains, at more than 1,500 meters.

The market also sells cua đá, a crab that lives in the streams of the high mountains. Its meat is sweet and firm. It is a rare specialty, seldom seen in the markets of the plains.

Around nine or ten in the morning, the market is at its busiest. When the buying and selling are done and the talk has run its course, the crowd slowly drains away into the noon hour. Those from far away begin the road home. The way is long, and some do not reach their village until night.

Next week, they will come down again.