An Dong Market

This guide to An Dong Market in Cho Lon follows a market that began as a rough patch of trading stalls in 1951, thrown up for people fleeing south, before it grew into the busiest fashion market in Saigon under the Hoa, the city's ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese traders. It traces what happened after 1975, when trade collapsed and many Hoa families left, and the building slid toward emptiness. Head down to the basement for the market's fifty-plus food stalls, still crammed into one loud corridor.