Dong Van market beckons ethnic groups living roughly within a 25km radius of the town. This primarily consists of White Hmong, Black Dao and Tay people living high and secluded up in the mountains.
The colors of this hill-tribe gathering are diverse and interesting enough that marvel first-time visitors. The Dong Van hill-tribe market takes place in the spacious area, with the entire structure of “U” shape, and the walls are built from stones. The gathering attracts numerous kinds of goods (agricultural products, brocades, cattle, handicrafts, etc.). Each booth displays the goods on sales that call patrons to buy.
Each group of people eagerly travel to the market, with pedestrians carrying baskets of vegetables, fruits, chicken cages, bird cages, buffaloes, cows, and those on bicycles and motorbikes transporting bundles of goods or small pigs. Others are dressed in colourful ethnic costumes and come to the market from hamlets far away just for fun and entertainment. By either walking, biking and busing, H’mong girls and boys, young and old all gather at the market every Sunday for socializing, selling and showing off.
While the women are selling goods, their husbands are sitting next to the booths selling corn alcohol and “Thang Co” (the Hmong’s traditional dish of horse meat). The unique cultural experiences in the town and Dong Van Sunday Market in Ha Giang are exciting and diverse that keep attracting visitors. Various ethnic goods are on sales, and especially the lines of colourful scarves and alcohol products. Some ethnic minorities who are wearing brightly coloured costumes might carry goods on the backs, and this is an interesting scene to capture and film.