Rushing to the border province of Lang Son to buy cheap
Chinese goods is a popular activity, just three weeks before Tet.

The
“shopping paradise”

Lang Son
province has been well known as the “shopping paradise”, because all kinds of
goods, from popular to luxury products can be bought there. Therefore, the
province has attracted millions of shopping hungry tourists every year.
Especially, the number of visitors and shoppers has been sharply increasing, as
people are seeking to purchase goods to celebrate the lunar New Year.

“My
company organizes “shopping tours” every year before Tet, and people always
choose to go to Lang Son. The goods there are plentiful and cheap. I have been
to Lang Son several times, but I want to return there every year,” said Nguyen
Thi Thu from Thuy Loi Me Linh Company.

The three
most important and well known market areas in Lang Son province are Tan Thanh,
Dong Dang and Dong Kinh.

“The tour
to Lang Son only takes us one day: we depart early in the morning and return in
the afternoon of the same day,” Thu said.

Departing
from Hanoi, Thu and her colleagues head for Tan Thanh to do shopping. After
that, they go to Dong Dang and then to Dong Kinh. “Every market has its own
special characteristics,” Thu said.

The Tan
Thanh market area covers an area of 10 hectares, where 7000-8000 stalls and big
trade centers are located.

“Everything can be found here. However, Vietnamese people still prefer clothing,
blankets, footwear, eating bowls and sticks, and electronics,” Minh Hieu, a
driver, who said he always carries people to Lang Son, said.

He added
that the goods there are very plentiful at the end of the year. Retailers are
trying to attract buyers by offering price discounts. “Big sale-off. Goods
sourced from Guang Zhou”, “Surprisingly cheap goods” are the words that can be
seen on many boards hung over the stalls at the markets.

Dong Dang
Market, which is 8 kilometers far from Tan Thanh and Dong Kinh Market, just next
to Lang Son bus station,  are also full of visitors these days.

Hang, a
retailer at Dong Kinh Market, said that at first, many people did not intend to
buy Chinese goods because they thought that Chinese goods were low quality.
However, they then changed their mind, because Chinese goods are so cheap. “No
one leaves here without buying something,” she said.

Of course,
the prices of goods there are much lower than in cities. With just several
hundreds of thousands dong, one can purchase a set of blanket and cushion. The
clothes available there are dirt cheap, but they are still fashionable.
Especially, electronics are very cheap with prices just equal to a half of the
prices products sold in the cities.

“I buy
everything, including the things I do not really need. Everything is so cheap. I
have also bought many things for my parents and friends,” said Trang in Cau Giay
District in Hanoi.

In fact,
it requires a “commercial art” to purchase goods in the border markets. Many
people complained that they have bought counterfeit and low quality products.

Thu from
Thuy Loi Me Linh Company said that the retailers at Tan Thanh, Dong Kinh and
Dong Dang markets have “thousands of tricks” to cheat buyers. However, though
people have been warned to watch out for the tricks, they still purchase
counterfeit and bad goods.

One time,
a friend of Thu’s purchased two irons. The friend wanted to buy another kind of
iron, while the bought products were of a quite different kind. Another friend
only discovered when he returned home that the blanket he bought was torn. Thu
herself bought a bad electric cooker which has broken down.

“However,
despite the problems, all of us still want to go to Lang Son this year and next
year to do shopping. This is really a passion,” she said

Quynh Anh