Cai Be floating market is fading away

Cai Be floating market space today

Tourists disappointed

Cai Be Floating Market (Cai Be Town, Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province), is located at the junction of three rivers, where the Tien River and Cai Be River meet. The market was formed around the late 80s of the 17th century, on Cai Be Vam, by many trading boats in the surrounding area, gathering here to exchange agricultural products and many other goods, gradually becoming a floating market.

In parallel, people living along the river also equip boats to trade goods such as fabrics, seafood, household goods, food and drinks... especially fruits, to serve people and tourists, making the floating market bustling and bustling. Cai Be floating market is the most vivid evidence of a unique cultural feature of the Southern region, a transit station for fruits and products to all parts of the country.

Boats carrying people's agricultural products back and forth on the river

However, nowadays, road traffic is convenient, people have switched to transporting goods by car, the trading space on the floating market has become deserted with a few agricultural boats of people from the Western provinces anchored for trading.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Thanh, a tourist from Hanoi, shared that through the media, he imagined a bustling floating market with many goods, where he could visit, check-in and witness the unique trading features of the Southern people, and experience the feeling of swaying on a boat to enjoy specialties of the river region... However, he was really disappointed when this floating market was not like the documentary images he had seen but a stretch of river with a few boats selling vegetables.

The cruise ship terminal is sparse.

Mr. Tran Thanh Phong, a boat driver who transports tourists on this route, said that in the past, there were many boats and canoes trading on Cai Be floating market with a variety of goods and fruits, attracting many tourists to visit and shop. However, in recent years, every time he took passengers through the floating market area, he felt uneasy when he heard the sighs of tourists because of the silence of this floating market.

Like many other households, the family of Mr. Nguyen Huu Bon (70 years old, Binh Hoa Phuoc commune, Long Ho district, Vinh Long) has been living off the Cai Be floating market for over 50 years. Every morning at around 4am, they take a boat to the floating market to transport fruits from their garden or buy local produce to sell, and at the same time buy vegetables from the East to bring back to Vinh Long to sell. Their lives drift along the water, boats of people from all over gather here to exchange goods, and they have become neighbors without knowing it.

Mr. Bon confided: “In the past, our people bought and sold fruits and many other items to each other, including tourists, and our income was quite good. Now, people have moved to the road, so all the old neighbors have left, leaving only a few households like his family to survive on this floating market. Since the floating market has become less crowded and business has slowed down, we have only sold agricultural products to make a living.”

Some households in the Western provinces still trade on this floating market.

Preservation on paper

Faced with the risk of losing a unique tourism product, a distinctive cultural feature of the famous river region, in 2017, the functional sector of Cai Be district developed the Project "Preserving and promoting Cai Be floating market" for the period 2017-2020, oriented to 2025. At the same time, the functional sector of Cai Be district also organized many seminars with the theme: "Preserving and promoting Cai Be floating market" with the participation of scientists, tourism businesses and representatives of traders on Cai Be floating market.

Accordingly, Cai Be floating market will remain in its current state, but will be rearranged, managed, and reorganized to meet the requirements of waterway traffic safety; the planned water area will be 400 to 500m long, from Cai Be estuary to Canal 28; ensuring the number of boats and ships anchored at a fixed rate of 100 to 150 and receiving 200 to 300 boats and ships anchored for trading with a load capacity of 20 to 60 tons. Cai Be District People's Committee will invest in supporting infrastructure such as public toilets, lighting, bridges and wharves combined with the implementation of support policies on education, health care, electricity, and water to create favorable conditions to attract traders to buy and sell.

Cai Be floating market many years ago

But up to now, the project is still on paper, the floating market is increasingly fading away. Mr. Le Van Y, Vice Chairman of Cai Be District People's Committee, said that the locality is focusing on implementing a number of key projects such as: Planning and building the Dong Hoa Hiep ancient village tourism festival area; the special ecological garden tourism site in Dong Hoa Hiep ancient village, Hoa Khanh, the Hoa Hung Co Lich Islet resort tourism; developing more cultural, artistic, entertainment activities to retain tourists for long stays... The project to preserve and promote Cai Be floating market has not yet been implemented.

I think that nowadays, land transportation has developed remarkably, and farmers in the Mekong Delta have traders who bring their products to their homes. The lives of traders are becoming increasingly difficult. If we do not promptly rebuild and reorganize Cai Be floating market, we will lose a prime location for Mekong Delta tourism, a unique cultural feature of the river region, as well as the opportunity to create a livelihood for people living along the river.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/mai-mot-cho-noi-cai-be-post695058.html