A makeshift wholesale market on the outskirts of Hanoi is the place to go for cheap ceramics, unless it’s the week before Tet.

Leaving behind the noisy streets of Hanoi capital city, I drive down a dusty road alongside the Red River. On one side of the road I can see the gardens of peach and kumquat trees in Tu Lien and Nhat Tan villages. On the other side there is nothing but a dried-up river bed.

By stranded boats, children run amok in spite of the cold winter morning. Dust from the riverbed is whipped up by a gust of wind. I drive on through the morning mist passing pottery-vendors who cycle past, their rickety bicycles laden with ceramics. Tet is around the corner and there’s an extra sense of hope in the air. Everyone wants to make a few extra quid in the hope of a happy and prosperous New Year.

The vendors are all departing a small wholesale market (NO NAME?), which exclusively trades ceramics, porcelain and pottery products from the so-called traditional craft villages of Bat Trang (Hanoi), Phu Lang (Bac Ninh province), Chu Dau (Hai Duong province) and Mao Khe and Dong Trieu (Quang Ninh province).

The owners of the open market come from Vinh Phuc province’s Lap Thach district. They collectively supply many of Hanoi’s pottery shops and vendors. Everyday, vendors gather to load as many items as they can on their bicycles before setting off to the city centre. The vendors try to get into the city as early as possible to avoid the traffic police checkpoints as they can be fined for carrying such bulky loads in a hazardous manner.

“You can find every thing here in any size, shape or colour at prices that can go up to millions of dong,” says Le Van Thang, the owner of one large stall. “All demands are satisfied here.” The 47-year old was one of the founding members of the market. He says that initially this was a transit point where ceramics arrived by boat before being transported into the city. Gradually it became more common for commodities to be sold directly from the wharf. Demand grew for pots in part because of the nearby plantations of ornamental trees.

Throughout the year you might see 30- 40 boats at the wharf on any given day, but in the run up to Tet there could be hundreds. But the mode of transport is also slowly shifting from water to land. “As the river section has gradually narrowed due to alluvial and sand deposits, more commodities are being transported by trucks,” says Thang.

The market can get pretty hectic by all accounts. Another trader Le Thi Huong tells me I’m lucky as today there are no deliveries coming in. Thousands of vases, jars and pots cover the bank. Against a backdrop of maize fields and gardens of ornamental trees and flowers, it’s a colourful and peaceful setting. The main reason people will come to the wholesale market is unsurprisingly the price.

“Pottery here is two thirds or even half the price than in the inner city,” Huong says. Pham Van Ngan, who grows ornamental trees in Quang An village, comes here every weekend. “Instead of wasting half an hour driving to Bat Trang or a whole day in Bac Ninh or Hai Duong, I buy everything here and I’m done in 15 minutes,” Ngan says. At the market, the traders work all day long. Thang admits that while he loves his work, he has very little free time.

“Sometimes, I feel that we have been left behind by the modern world here! Customers come and go. We stay here,” he says. “Life is a bit sad here in the evening.” The traders used to live in boathouses but as the river has dried up, everyone has moved to the shore where they live in small makeshift huts made out of wood, metal and sheets of plastic. This means Thang has to borrow cash from relatives and friends in his hometown to rent land from the farmers of Tu Lien and Nhat Tan.

“We have no official land and we are strangers in the city. Children here are picked on at school because they are ‘nha que’ (country people),” says Huong. Although life is hard there is the prospect of better times ahead. Tet is coming and this is an excuse to bump up prices. Some products will be sold for three times higher than normal.

“The market will be livelier soon as everyone from Hanoi rushes to buy vases and pots for kumquat trees and other ornamental trees,” says Huong with an optimistic smile.

VietNamNet/Timeout