Bac Ha Market

Held every Sunday in a mountain town of northern Vietnam, this weekly ethnic-minority market draws Flower Hmong and other highland communities from surrounding villages. Traders in vivid embroidered dress gather to sell textiles, livestock, produce and handicrafts, with a large animal section where buffalo and horses change hands. The market functions as much as a social occasion as a place of commerce, families travelling long distances to meet. Its saturated colours make it one of the region's best-known highland markets.