Sapa
market located at the center of Sapa town and and is opened
every day. But it is most crowded on Saturday late afternoon
and evening.
Before the French built Sapa town into a town, the market
place was on the sandy ground about 7 km east of the town
now, at the junction of the main road to Lao Cai and the trail
to Ta Phin Village.
Until 1980s, when the population of the region was small and
transportation was very poor, It was really hard to communicate
among villages, the market offered probably the only chances
once a week for H’mong and Red Zao peoples to meet others.
The main market took place on Sunday but many went to the
market the afternoon before because their villages were too
far and it took many hours to go on foot. Of course there
were no accommodation for rent then, so for passing the night
they gathered around fire talking, playing their traditional
music, dancing… Gradually these activities attracted
the youngsters from villages near by to come and turned the
market into a dating place for lovers. Nowadays, due to fast
development in the region to make it easy for locals to communicate
among villages, as a result, the market in Sapa has been becoming
less important spiritually. However, it is still crowded every
weekend and worthwhile to spend few hours to join local for
a life experience. |
