Dong Xuan Market, Hanoi

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This is a huge complex...it takes up a couple of blocks and is on 3 levels. Inside you can find everything imaginable, but only if you can stand the press of people for long enough to look. It was just too crowded for comfort when we were there! The French built the market in the 1880's. It has been rebuilt since a fire burned down much of it in 1994. The only original part is the entrance which has been restored.

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The area’s a little crustier than the blocks you’ve past (and always has had a poetic allure for its ‘pickpockets’ and seedier feel), but worth it to at least see the original 1889 façade of the market. The building it fronts is a more modern monstrosity, built after a 1994 fire wrecked the inside.

Head back south again and left on Hang Chieu St, past the mat shops. Two blocks ahead you’ll see

This large three-storey market in the north of Hanoi's Old Quarter offers a varied cornucopia of goods of all sorts. Hundreds of stalls, with thousands of workers, trade extremely fresh produce, dried foods, household goods, appliances and more. The market has an interesting history. It saw fierce fighting between Vietnamese resistance units and the French. Later, in 1994, the market was destroyed in a fire that resulted in the death of five people and the loss of an estimated USD4.5 million in stock.