How did the Chinese come to settle in Cho Lon (Big Market), Sai Gon's Chinatown?

During the late 1700s, three brothers from Tay Son Village west of modern Quy Nhan City in the Center led a peaSont uprising. In 1777, the Tay Son peasant forces fought fiercely against the Nguyen Court representatives in the Cu Lao Pho region, now the site of Bien Hoa City northwest of Sai Gon. The Cu Lao Pho Market was burned down during the fighting. Chinese residents abandoned Thanh Ha Village in Cu Lao Pho to settle in Minh Huong Village, the current site of Sai Gon's Cho Lon Market.



The Chinese traditionally set up markets wherever they settled. They built a new market on the site of the current Cho Lon Post Office. Since the new market was larger than the existing Tan Kieng Market, people called the new market Cho Lon, which means "big market" in Vietnamese. Trinh Hoai Duc (1765-1825), a Vietnamese mandarin, described Cho Lon in his book, Gia Dinh thanh thong chi (Record of Gia Dinh Town, 1820), as follows: Streets and house roofs run continuously, shoulder to shoulder. Chinese and Vietnamese families live next to each other for three miles. The venders sell velvet, chinaware, paper, jeweler, books, medicines, tea, and powder. All kinds of goods travel over many different sea and river routes to arrive here.



Trading at Cho Lon became so attractive that many people poured in, congesting the neighborhood. A Chinese merchant, Quach Dam, bought 25,000 square meters of marshland in Binh Tay Hamlet and filled the area with earth. He proposed to the Cho Lon authorities that he erect a new market of reinforced concrete for the province if, in return, the province would allow him to build some streets with rental houses. The local authorities agreed. Quach Dam built the new Cho Lon Market, now called Binh Tay Market, which was larger and cleaner. The merchants showed their gratitude by calling it Quach Dam Market. Quach Dam regained his investment by renting houses near the market. After seven decades, Binh Tay Market still looks beautiful and remains one of the busiest markets in Sai Con - Ho Chi Minh City.