Dong Van's old quarter is the most intact colonial-era settlement in Ha Giang province, a cluster of stone houses and shopfronts built by Chinese merchants in the early twentieth century and supplemented by French administrative buildings. The buildings are low, thick-walled, and roofed in the curved dark tiles typical of southern Chinese vernacular architecture — distinctly different from the wooden houses of lowland Vietnam. The quarter sits at the foot of a large cliff with the market square at its centre.
Sunday market day brings minority communities down from the surrounding plateau villages to trade — corn, livestock, tools, textiles. The H'mong women in embroidered clothing and the Lo Lo in their striped skirts are conspicuous, though the market is a working exchange rather than a tourist performance. The quarter is small enough to walk in half an hour, but it rewards slowing down: look at the doorways, the courtyards, the faded French signage above old shop fronts.