Dong Xuan Market

The largest covered market in Hanoi, at the top of the Old Quarter, in a French iron hall of 1889 that burned in 1994 and was rebuilt behind its original arched front. Three floors: household goods and dry stores at the bottom, then fabric, then clothing wholesale above.

It is not a tourist market and does not pretend to be. Most of what is sold here is sold in bulk to people who will resell it in the streets outside.

What it costs

⭐ Free to enter. Prices inside are wholesale-flavoured and are expected to be negotiated; the food lanes behind the hall are cash only.

When to go

⭐ Early. The serious trade is done between about six and nine in the morning and the upper floors are quiet by mid-afternoon.

On weekend evenings the night market runs down Hang Dao from the market’s front doors towards the lake — a different thing entirely, aimed at Hanoians out for the evening.

Getting there

Straight up Hang Dao from Hoan Kiem Lake, about twelve minutes on foot. The Long Bien bridge ramp is five minutes further on.

If you only have an hour

Walk the ground floor end to end, go up one level for the fabric, then leave by the back and eat in the food lane behind the hall. Thirty minutes, and the back lane is the better half.

What people get wrong

⚠️ People come expecting souvenirs and find bulk plastic. If you want things to take home, the Old Quarter streets around it are better. Come to Dong Xuan for the building and the trade, not the shopping.

⚠️ Check the note before you hand it over. The 20,000 and the 500,000 are both blue polymer and they are easy to confuse in bad light — that is a twenty-five fold mistake. Count the zeros, not the colour. Cards work in hotels and larger restaurants; the stools, the markets and the temples are cash. See Money & Language.