(VOVWORLD) - Cai Rang floating market, a popular tourist destination in Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta, was honored by the UK’s Rough Guide Travel Magazine as one of the ten most impressive markets in the world. The Can Tho municipal authorities are carrying out a project to preserve and develop the floating market.
People sell fruits and other agricultural products as well as “street” food at Cai Rang floating market, where the shops and stalls are all boats. This appealing and popular market is a major draw of Can Tho’s tourism sector.
 Cai Rang - one of the most impressive markets in the world |
In 2016, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism officially recognized the market as an intangible cultural heritage. Later, the Can Tho municipal People’s Committee launched a project to preserve and develop it, currently valued at 2.7 million USD, and turn it into an eco-tourism site.
The project will build a new embankment along the Can Tho river to protect the city from flooding. The portion of the embankment adjacent to the Cai Rang floating market will have a special design. Vuong Cong Khanh, Vice Chairman of the Cai Rang district People’s Committee, explained, “The special design will facilitate loading and unloading of goods carried by boats and allow tourists to observe the market from the embankment.”
 Cai Rang is a wholesales market. |
300 boats sell or trade goods and produce every day at the floating market. Another 200 boats bring buyers and sight-seers from the city.
According to cultural researcher Nham Hung, the hundred-year-old market grew up naturally out of a need for a convenient way to trade goods and produce. It now typifies the Mekong Delta region and its vast network of rivers and canals. Preserving the practical and cultural value of the Cai Rang floating market is the main goal of the project.
Researcher Hung told VOV, “The Cai Rang floating market of the future will combine the market’s original character with the Government’s vision. The market will endure as long as Government efforts to preserve it match the aspirations of the people who live on the water.”
 People try street food on boats at Cai Rang floating market. |
Plans to promote the floating market include highlighting the sellers’ call-and-response tradition, performances of southern opera on the boats, Can Tho river cruises, and a floating night market.
Nguyen Khanh Tung, Director of the Can Tho municipal Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said, “The project gives priority to the promotion of indigenous culture. We plan to teach the sellers foreign languages so they can talk to visitors about their boat and their products. We will also teach them to sing some southern opera songs. There will be southern opera shows on the water every week.”