Binh Tay Market

This guide to Binh Tay Market in Ho Chi Minh City traces the life of Quach Dam, a Chaozhou immigrant who arrived in Saigon with nothing, started out collecting garbage and trading hides, and rose within twenty years into one of Cholon's two richest rice merchants, running a trading house called Thong Hiep alongside rubber plantations and a fleet of steamships. When Saigon's old market grew too cramped, he decided to build its replacement himself, with one condition attached before he would hand it over.