If you travel to Sapa or Bac Ha on the weekend, you may want to visit Can Cau Market, held every Saturday. Let’s find out detailed information about the market with Handspan Travel Indochina!

Through this article, you will learn about these pieces of information below.

General information about Can Cau Market

Can Cau Market is located in Can Cau Commune, Si Ma Cai District, Lao Cai Province. It is nearly 100 kilometers from Lao Cai City center to the Northeast and 30 kilometers from Bac Ha Town to the North. Can Cau still retains the cultural features of the Mong Hoa, Black Dao, Tay, Nung, and Giay people in the area and nearby regions. If you want to explore the whole market, you should come here early, as the fair operates until early afternoon. 

Can Cau Market

The market is right next to 153 road, the only road connecting Bac Ha Town with Si Ma Cai Town. From Sapa Town, you can follow the 4D road through the Bao Thang District to 153 road to get to Bac Ha. On the way through the Can Cau Commune, you will encounter the Can Cau market on 153 road. Coming to the market, you can immerse yourself in the crowded atmosphere and learn more about the daily life of upland people while admiring the surrounding landscape of mountains, terraced rice fields, and simple thatched-roof houses of ethnic people in Si Ma Cai. Local people come here not only to buy and sell products but also to meet, talk, and inquire each other about health, life, etc. 

Now, it’s time to see amazing experiences in the market below.

Admiring different stalls at Can Cau Market

Can Cau Market is divided into many zones. They are selling brocade products, fruits and agricultural products, housewares, traditional medicine, medicinal herbs, wine, food, specialty areas, and livestock for production areas. Each zone has its own unique character that appeals to every tourist who comes here for the first time. 

Different stalls at the Can Cau Market

Can Cau Market's crowded atmosphere

Local agricultural products at the Can Cau Market

Walking around Can Cau Market, you will find vegetables, fruits, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, wild honey to brocade products. The brocade product stalls are always the most attractive and colorful area at the fair, especially for women and children. You will see glistening brocade dresses of Hmong ethnic girls and brocade bags woven by ethnic women. Colorful brocade fabrics are also the choice of many women who come to the market. Besides, embroidery threads of all colors and accessories are also ideal souvenirs for you to bring home. 

Trying local specialties at Can Cau Market

Undoubtedly, the stalls selling local specialties at Can Cau Market are also crowded with local people and tourists talking and trying the food. Here, you will have a chance to enjoy strange and attractive ethnic dishes only available in the Northwest market, such as Thang Co, corn wine, 5-color sticky rice, corn cake, etc. Thang Co is one of the local dishes you may want to experience. This dish includes horse, beef, pork, and buffalo meat. Besides the meat's tasty flavor, broth is a particular characteristic of this food. It is mixed from 12 different spices, such as pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, etc. You may find this dish strange, but it is worth trying. 

Can Cau Market's food stalls

Banh day 

Bac Ha's chili

Bac Ha's sticky rice 

Can Cau Market - the largest buffalo market in Vietnam’s Northwest area

Can Cau Market is well-known for being the largest buffalo market in Vietnam’s Northwest area. Each fair has hundreds of buffaloes from all highland villages of Bac Ha, Si Ma Cai, Muong Khuong, and Sin Man districts in Ha Giang. Traders from nearby areas come here to buy buffalo for plowing, seeding, butchering, and for food. In the middle of the buffaloes, buyers and sellers, curious locals, and tourists also come here to enjoy the bustling atmosphere. They gather in groups around the buffaloes to admire, comment, and exchange with each other. 

Can Cau buffalo market

In conclusion, the Can Cau market is always an attractive spot in the journey to explore Sapa and Bac Ha. Let’s drop into the market and learn about the local people’s pace of life! Please refer to our Bac Ha tour package below for more experiences.

Terraced Beauty: Exploring Hoang Su Phi and Sapa