Plan your trip
Ha Giang market days, explained properly
Most of Ha Giang's well-known markets are fixed weekly markets, held every Saturday or Sunday. A smaller set of eight — the "cho lui", or rotating markets — do not follow the Gregorian week at all. They follow the old 12-day zodiac cycle, which is why the date changes every time and most visitors never work out how to catch one.
The fixed weekly markets
Most market towns on and around the loop hold a straightforward weekly market, usually on a Saturday or Sunday. Du Gia (Du Già), Mau Due (Mậu Duệ) and Quyet Tien (Quyết Tiến) are three of the more commonly visited ones. These are easy to plan around — if you know the town, you can usually count on the same day every week.
What a "cho lui" actually is
A smaller number of markets in Dong Van (Đồng Văn) and Quan Ba (Quản Bạ) districts do not run on a fixed weekday at all. They are timed to the old 12-day zodiac calendar — each market has two "animal days" a cycle, twelve days apart, when it runs. Mapped onto the ordinary calendar that means the date shifts each time, which is exactly why so few visitors ever plan around one on purpose. There are eight of these rotating markets in the province.
The eight rotating markets
These are the real locations and cycles. The monthly dates are the solar-calendar equivalent of the same zodiac cycle, so either column gets you to the same market day.
| Market | Location | Monthly dates | Zodiac days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pho Bang (Phó Bảng) | ~5km from the Sung La (Sủng Là) junction | 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 | Rat, Horse |
| Pho Cao (Phố Cáo) | On the road between Yen Minh and Dong Van | 4, 10, 16, 28 | Dragon, Dog |
| Sa Phin (Sà Phìn) | At the gate of the Vuong Family Palace, Dong Van | 5, 11, 17, 23, 29 | Snake, Pig |
| Lung Phin (Lũng Phìn) | Dong Van district, via the Yen Minh–Meo Vac road | 2, 8, 14, 20, 26 | Tiger, Monkey |
| Lung Cu (Lũng Cú) | Dong Van district | — | Goat, Buffalo |
| Sung Trai (Sủng Trái) | Dong Van district | — | Goat, Buffalo |
| Trang Kim (Tráng Kìm) | Quan Ba district | — | Goat, Buffalo |
| Ma Le (Mã Lé) | Dong Van district | — | Rat, Horse |
Actually catching one
Work out the zodiac day for your actual travel dates before you fix an itinerary — that is the only reliable way to know which of these eight will be running while you are here. My scheduled trips run on fixed days, so I cannot promise a market day lands inside your itinerary, but if it does, I will route us through it rather than around it. See the Ha Giang Loop guide for how the route itself normally shapes up.
Where this guide is wrong for you
If seeing a specific rotating market is the whole reason for your trip, plan your dates around that market first and the rest of the loop second — trying to force a fixed 3-day itinerary to also hit a cho lui day usually fails, because the two calendars rarely line up conveniently.
Next step
Tell me your dates
If you want to try to catch one of these markets, tell me your travel dates and I will check whether any of the eight line up before we plan the route.