(If you only want to find the addresses, bargaining notes, and other tips from me - a Danang girl, scroll to the bottom of the page)
Together with the fast pace of life, in recent years Da Nang has seen the bloom of modern shopping centers, convenience stores chains, and mini supermarkets, meanwhile, Da Nang’s traditional markets gradually shrink down and face a high risk of replacement. Whether the places which once were spiritual gathering spots for local people could survive amid the fast development of logistic and supply industry?
From the small food market that every neighborhood had one
In the past, there was at least one small market in an area of 5km square, and most people used to visit their neighborhood market every day. The owners of the markets, of course, were these local sellers and buyers. Markets could be easily set up in any available space, with vendors laying out their goods on makeshift stalls or on street pavements. Due to this small-scale characteristic, the majority of trading in the markets were discrete and unfocused, goods, of course, were advertised and offered at a diverse value. That was why one market goer often remembered her favorite “fish lady” “shoe lady” stalls and chose those stalls among others to make sure she got the suitable taste and to save time making acquaintance with a strange seller.
Unlike supermarkets and shopping malls, traditional markets wake up early in the morning. Sellers arrive at their fixed place and prepare their stalls as early as 5 am to welcome busy ladies who go to market before going to work. By 10 am, the sounds of people talking, haggling and yelling blend with those of motorbike engines and horns mark the busiest time of a market. Sellers often try to sell up fast and do big discounts to the end of the morning, not so many of them stay until the afternoon.
To the Bigger city markets
There three most visiting center traditional markets in Da Nang are Han Market, Con Market, and Dong Da Market. Unlike the district markets where fresh food was sold to households in the local neighborhood, central markets are the primary supply of pretty much everything, from butchered meat to lobsters, from normal household appliances to unique local specialties, from fabrics to tailor-made dresses. Until 5-10 years ago, the three central markets had always been very busy, especially the period before Tet Holiday when everyone went shopping for Tet preparation.
Traditional markets as a cultural beauty
Markets have been good spots for gossiping, especially the district local markets. The buyers and the sellers in a market seem to know each other well. People could talk about everything, relationships, family issues, politics ..etc.. while they are selling and buying. Food arrives family meals together with the stories heard at the market were then told to family members. Things like how that one’s husband had a secret relationship with that one’s wife or that little son of that woman had passed the entrance exam to that famous university pass from one to another in that way, each time with “just a tiny” detail bonus to the original-but-not-necessarily-true story.
Market shopping skills used to be a good measurement of wifey material. There is even an idiom that “smart men find wives at the busy market, smart women find husbands at the battlefield”. Vietnamese women used to be praised by the way she could bargain to the lowest price and bring home an alive or recent-dead fish (not a spoiled one). Mothers often took her daughters to the market and taught her to “screen and pick” the right food, to buy enough ingredients for two main meals in that day, and to bargain. Though everybody agrees that the first half of the idiom is irrelevant in this peacetime, somehow a traditional-styled-mothers-in-law still finds the second-half reliable when she judges her son’s want-to-marry girl.
As so, the markets have become not only trading areas, but are more or less a memory treasure box, which stores pieces of life stories, culture, and local habits.
Traditional markets in the present day
The change in people's shopping behavior combines with the big wave of tourists has influenced the way the locals do trading profoundly. One of the big traditional markets – Han market has steadily been transformed into a tourist market in recent years. Sellers target tourists as their primary customers, stalls selling Da Nang specialties, “instant” ready-to-wear Ao dai (FYI: local women always opt to tailor-made ao dai) are replacing the old stalls. A local girl like me once felt that I was an outsider when visiting Han Market last year when surrounding me most of the visitors were foreign tourists. Of course, this is the right transformation which is according to the city growth, but I somehow cannot stand feeling that something has been lost.
Old habit dies hard, now traditional markets are still the most visiting place for middle age ladies, who are still the main food shoppers for the family. Yet the younger generation in twenty, thirty-ish start to prefer the comfort, cleanliness, price stability, and clear goods' origin of convenience stores. The challenge for traditional markets is that: it will have to continue to evolve to adapt to the new situation at the same time preserve its unique features. Food markets need modernization, but that does not mean turning traditional markets into trade centers or putting them under a shopping mall.
Small guides to Da Nang's Markets:
Han Market (has become a tourist attraction)
• Address: 119 Tran Phu, Hai Chau District
• Great picks: Food court (ground floor); Da Nang specialties; ornaments; clothing (i.e.Ao dai); fabrics (bargain!)
Con Market (still a traditional market in its true form)
• Address: 290 Hung Vuong, Hai Chau District (right next to Big C supermarket)
• Great picks: Seafood caught far offshore - lobsters, giant squids, tuna, etc; cheap food court; cheap clothes (bargain!)
Bac My An Market (local district market - which means you can buy all daily food at a cheap price)
• Address: 25 Nguyen Ba Lan, Ngu Hanh Son District
• Great picks: Avocado Icecream! (famous like since 20 years ago), all other foods are super cheap.
Bargaining & Other tips
• The price of daily food is often reason enough to buy without bargain (you can, of course, but not much). The bigger value, the more you can bargain. For example, a small fish is 150.000VND, you can try 140.000 VND, 1 kg of big prawn is 500.000VND, you can try bargain 400.000, then accept 450.000.
• For other items (not food), bargaining is important. You should go around the area and ask several kiosks to get the reference and then decide. The tip is Smiling and be Friendly and Polite when you bargain (my mother taught me that and it always works) because most ladies at the market are moved very easily. At the market, the poor, the student, the elder always have better offers.
• Markets can be quite crowded, so you need to keep eyes an eye on your personal items to avoid dropping being dropped or being stolen.