Traveling in Hue, besides visiting the beautiful Hue tourist destinations, you do not forget to explore the busy market Dong Ba, which is one of the old places which rich culture of this city. A leisurely few hours here will definitely bring you lots of exciting experience.
Dong Ba Market is a valuable trading center of Hue City for the local people. For tourists, this place is also considered an excellent place to buy delicious specialties as gifts. The stalls in the market are opened and traded every day of the year.
Dong Ba Market
Opening time: 6:00am – 6:00pm
Location: 2 Tran Hung Dao Street, Phu Hoa Ward, Hue City
>> You may check the street food tour to visit Dong Ba Market.
Top products selling at Dong Ba Market
As the busiest trading place in Hue, the products are really diverse for you to choose from and purchase. The main building has a lot of clothes and bags on the second floor, and on the first floor, selling candies, hats, stationery, and souvenirs.
- Hue local food at Dong Ba Market: If you want to enjoy the flavorful cuisine of Hue with affordable prices, you can not miss a meal at Dong Ba Hue market with many attractive local dishes, including Com Hen (clam rice), Bun Bo Hue, Banh Loc, Banh Nam…
- Sweet soup: that is one of the famous local food in Hue that is made of beans, sugar, and other types of flour and fruits. Tourists can find many places to taste sweet soups, and Dong Ba Market also sells this kind of food. The sweet soups in Hue have different dishes, so the shops often offer 10 to 20 types of sweet soups to taste.
- Royal tea: This type of tea used to be a royal drink of Nguyen kings. The tea is made of different herbs, creating a real different taste. Many people say that the royal tea is good for sleeping. Its price is from 50,000VND to 70,000VND per bag. One bag is separated to make many different cups of tea.
- Shrimp sauce: This food is fishy, but plenty of Vietnamese people like to taste shrimp sauce with steamed pork, bean sprouts, and steam rice. Price is from 80,000VND per 400g jar.
- Dry food: Walking around the dry food stalls on the first floor of the market is also enjoyable. If you want to buy food to bring back to taste at the hotel or on the car, you definitely can not ignore the dry food stalls, selling a lot of candies, cakes, dried squid, dried shrimp, and dried beef.
- Conical hat: is near the dried food area. Travelers can find a lot of conical hats selling here, especially Non Bai Tho (Poem Hats), that can also find here. The poem hats are traditional hats with poems and pictures of Hue between two layers of the hats.
>>> You may want to see more the top things to buy in Hue City.
Best time to visit Dong Ba Market
If you want to know the busiest time of a day in Dong Ba Market, you may come here in the morning from 7:00 am to 9:00 am. This time is good to buy fresh food, including vegetable, fishes, and meat.
To go shopping for souvenirs, clothes, or bags, you may come after 3:00 pm. It is because this duration is not as crowded as in the morning, the weather is cooler, and an essential reason is to avoid the first person coming to the shop of a day. If the first person comes to the shop of a day, he or she does not buy any things, creating a bad luck business day for the shop. I think you do not want to be that person.
Notes before visiting Dong Ba Market
- Many people think Dong Ba is a small market, but actually, it has 15,600 square meters. Thus, you can spend a few hours to half of the days to go shopping at this site. You can find most of the kinds of goods for daily life, souvenirs, or food.
- The unique features of the cuisine culture at this market makes a lot of Vietnamese people like to come to taste the local food of Hue.
- The journey to visit the market also needs a suitable starting point. If there are no correct directions, you will probably get lost inside the market because of many stalls and small alleys. Thus, remember the parking or the main gate of the market to start and come back after shopping.
- And, the market here is quite crowded, so you need to pay more attention to your personal belongings.
Tips for shopping: Although Dong Ba is a vital market in Hue, sellers in this market often tell the very high price of products, especially goods of bags, souvenirs, clothes… Therefore, you need to bargain a lot when you go shopping here. How much can you negotiate? This tip is just for reference. Some products may get 50% of the price, but most of the items are bargained from 20% – 30%, and it also depends on what they sell to get the right level of discounts. And, most people avoid bargaining at the food court where they sell food to eat immediately.
