Tailoring accessories wholesalers at Cholon.

Statue of Lao Tzu(pinyin: Lǎozǐ),a great chinese philisopher who live during the 5th century BC along Hải Thượng Lãn Ông Road just across the Sacombank in Cholon Chinatown District 5,Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

 Lao Tzu is depicted as an old man with a white beard and a yellow robe.
In his right hand, he is carrying a peach, the symbol of immortality, while in his left hand he carries a wooden staff with the head of a dragon.

 Over here in Vietnam he's known as Lao Tu,that's why you have Lao Tu Street nearby with the Buddhist pagoda temple known as Chùa Quan Âm.

Behind Ben Xe Cholon is Trang Tu Road,running parallel to Tránh Chăn Chiếu Road and there are many textile merchants over these side.

 Further up will be Nguyễn Trãi Road[Thien Hau Pagoda (Chua Thien Hau),Ong Pagoda (Nghia An Hoi Chan Temple) and Jamil Mosque in the vicinity] that meets the main artery road of Hồng Bàng Street[Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda around here].




 Cho Lon is the Chinese section annexed to Saigon city and is a heavy populated area.

The Battle of Cholon way back in 1968 saw fierce fightings between the vietcongs and government forces especially near the Hong Bang Street area.

 The only modern high rise skyscraper seen across from Hai Truong Lan Ong Street(also known as The Medicine Street).






The Thuận Kiều Plaza.
The project was completed in 1998.
 The Thuận Kiều commercial center in District 5 along Hồng Bàng Street is a 33 storey apartment building complex .
There are three towers apartment blocks with lettable area and also for sale to foreigners.
The complex has been developed by Hong Kong's Kings Harmony International United and HCMC's District 5 Construction and Trading Co.

On the ground floors there are offices,shopping malls and restaurants.  
Quang Dai Minimart is on the second floor of Thuan Kieu Plaza,40%-50% of customers are foreigners, mostly from China and Hong Kong.
First floor Hai San Restaurant is popular with local businessmen and wedding parties. It serves excellent dim sum but you'll have to ignore the garish, stark interiors.
On the ground floor, Lau Ca Chinese Restaurant offers steamboat and seafood.








A Buddha gem pagoda tower.
Normally a pagoda tower is octagonal in shape and has eight levels depicting the Noble Eightfold Path which is one one of the teaching of Buddha.

  Chua Phuoc Long Buddhist Temple at Le Quang Sung Street which is north of Binh Tay Market,Cholon,District 5,Vietnam.










Co.op Mart at Le Quang Sung Street is one of the most popular supermarket chain whose brand name is synonymous with the Vietnamese people.

They have private home brand products produced from local factories that are quality compliance and are cheaper than other brand.
Stocks available ranges from processed food,homecare,household appliances and apparels,
The headoffice is at No:199-205, Nguyen Thai Hoc -Pham Ngu Lao,District 1.
Vietnam's domestic consumer market is very huge and there are still potentials to tap the rural lower budget consumers who are also brand conscious.







Walking through one of the side alleys off Hai Truong Lan Ong Street beside Ngo Doc Thanh street ,I stumbled into a wholesale market specialty in sewing and tailoring accessories for the domestic and export garments industries.

 The narrow alleys are quite similar to those at Yaowarat in Bangkok Chinatown.

Vietnam main zipper brand is the HKK.
 The pioneer in the field of zippers is Hoan My Company Limited whose headoffice is at No:455 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Ward 5, Dist. 3, Ho Chi Minh City, VietNam while its factory is at Highway 13 Ap Tay,Vinh Phu Ward, Thuan An Dist.,Binh Duong Province, VietNam.

Most of the zippers on the apparels which you are wearing is from the YKK brand from Japan which is the world's largest zipper manufacturer. The initials YKK stand for (Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha), Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation.





 A small little wholesale shop selling domestic sewing thread.
Each small cops of spun polyester sewing thread contains 250 metres in length and it comes in a box of 10 cops.

They are either the 2-ply(40s/2) or 3-ply(60s/3) twisted polyester yarn. The colour trend now seems to be those of pastel and luminous match. There are close to 500 colour range in the shade card and only the most popular trending colours have higher stocks level.

You'll be surprised that a small shop like this can churn in a substantial annual turnover.







COATS brand sewing thread is a global and well established sewing thread company.
The new logo is after the merging of J& P Coats and Astra Sewing Company way back in 1996 both from England,Great Britain.
I was a marketing executive of this company for nearly 13 years till the merging of the whole entity.

Coats Phong Phu Ltd located at Tang Nhon Phu B ward, District 9, Ho Chi Minh City is a joint venture between Coats Holdings Ltd. and Phong Phu Textile Company (Vietnam). It was established on July 25th, 1989.







In the Asia Pacific region,most of the spun polyester thread are wound onto a plastic cops compared to the western counterparts who are used to the spool type.

 The Anchor brand cotton ball thread comes in size 2(thicker),size 8 and size 10.
The cone shape thread are the industrial 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres.
Most of the nylon thread used mostly by the shoes ,belts and bags industry are being supplied by the company's factory in Germany.
As for cotton thread,the main source is from India which is one of the major cotton producers in the world.
The world's cotton price has short up to its high @ 214 cents per pound on February 2011 from a low of 48 cents per pound in February 2009.The latest price is 110 cents per pound,a double digit increase and thus will affect the prices of apparels and garments.

Fu Huang Sern Temple in Cholon Chinatown.

Located off the main street of Hai Tuong Lan Ong,the Fu Huang Sern chinese temple is a place of worship to the majority Hokkien speaking people in the Cholon community.

It is being managed by the Fujian Erfu Huay Kuan.(Fujian Erfu Association) The temple has fine craftmanship with most materials shipped from the ancestral homeland and the design is a replica model of the oldest Kaiyuan Temple in the West Street of Quanzhou,Fujian Province built in the year 686AD.

A pair of lion sculpture is standing guard outside. Similar temple structures can be seen at the oldest Thian Hock Keng Temple in Singapore,Long Shan Tang Temple and Keng Hock Keong Temple both in Yangon Chinatown.

The two large lanterns hanging near the temple's entrance have symbolic meaning.
The written characters have Chinese proverbs inscribed while the larger characters will identify the place or events name.

The bigger characters says it's Hokkien God or "pinyin:Fu Huang Sern"
In the case of a Chinese funeral,a white lantern with the maiden name of the deceased being inscribed on it. Weddings and other important ceremonies also have lanterns to brighten up the atmosphere.

The bronze vases and the ritual wine container [fāngyí (方彝)] in the middle  doesn't look like a josstick urn.

There were written inscription cast on the vessel and on top of the cover is a little dragon that looks like a tiger.

Nickname "Xianzhang" or Bi'an,it is one of the nine sons of a dragon according to Chinese legend.He's very powerful and interested in prisons and judicial cases.

You'll noticed this kind of settings in almost all temples where a judicial table will be in front of the main altar.




 "Fujian De Yong" the signcraft at the entrance. Chinese text writing during ancient time starts from the right.
Traditionally, Chinese is written in vertical columns from top to bottom; the first column is on the right side of the page, and the text runs toward the left.

 Text written in Classical Chinese also uses little or no punctuation. With modernisation,the text layout has now followed the western style.

 Simplified Chinese is standard in the People's Republic of China, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Traditional Chinese is retained in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and overseas Chinese communities.

 The main hall altar with the patron deity Fazhugong or Zhanggong shengju.
A kind of idol worship that has been passed down from generations.
 A notable sight in Hokkien households is the display of three or more generations of ancestral tablets at the family altar, besides other deities.




 "City God" or Cheng Huang (城隍) taking care of the fortunes of the city.

Quan Cong also known as Guan Yu,a general in the Three Kingdoms of Chinese history.

That is the period of anarchy during the Six Dynasties
The last dynasty of China was the Qing Dynasty also known as the Manchu Dynasty ruling from 1644 to 1912.

  Portrait of Huangdi,the Yellow Emperor who founded the Chinese civilization.
He's the great inventor of carts,boats and clothings.

 That fantastic beast animal with him was Bai Ze,which provided him with guidance on the forms and habits of all types of supernatural creatures in the world and how to overcome their attacks.

Legend has it that the dragon has nine sons, but none has grown into a dragon, with each having his own appearance.

 Bixi :-look like a turtle and is fond of carrying heavy loads.
Chiwen:- looks somewhat like a lizard without a tail. He likes to gaze around in precarious areas.
 Pulao:- shaped like a dragon, but smaller in size and like to roar.
 Taotie:- looks like a wolf and is extremely fond of eating.
 Qiuniu:- looks like a small yellow dragon with scales and loves music.
Yazi:- stares at things with angry eyes and he's fond of bloody killings.
 Suanni:- was originally the alias of the lion, so he looks like a lion. He likes smoke and fire and is fond of sitting.
Jiaotu:- is like a mussel or a snail that's tight-lipped by nature.

Images of a Buddhist monk with the peasants.

God of Wealth has a big tummy.

The God of Wealth is a Chinese deity who can bless one with luck, wealth and economic opportunities.

 This is my first time seeing a Monkey God.

Recalling the movie "Sun Wukong" which detailed his adventures.
An outcast from Taoist heaven, the Monkey God was redeemed and gained Buddhist immortality by escorting Tang Xuan Zang on his pilgrimage to the West to obtain the teachings of Lord Buddha.

The Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West have detailed history of his existence.





  Scene of Chinese New Year celebration.
The lion dance and the laughing Buddha buddy seen here with children playing musical instruments.

 The Chinese New Year celebration last for 15 days but in most countries, the first and usually the second day of Chinese New Year is designated as public holidays.
 The eve will be reunion dinner while the 15th day is the yuanxiao.





The Tiger being King of the Jungle.
 In a Chinese horoscope,Tiger Years are third in the cycle and recur every twelfth year.

The characteristics of the Tiger are tempered by one of the five Chinese elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. Tigers, born under the third Animal sign of the Chinese Zodiac, have the ability to lift the spirits of even the most depressed or lonesome individual they meet.

 Once a Tiger has committed himself to you after marriage, he can tend to want to dominate or lead you.
Tigers love excitement and need someone who can keep up with all they want to do and see.
On the other hand,tigers can be quite impulsive spenders because they know they can always make more.

Cholon Chinatown gearing up for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Rows of stalls along Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in District 5,Cholon Chinatown selling mooncakes(月餅; pinyin: yuè bĭng).

Mooncake festival is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival where the Chinese pray to the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality.

Mooncake in Vietnamese is Banh Trung Thu.
 The Mid-Autumn Festival is a very auspicious event of the Chinese which falls on the 12th day of September 2011(the 15th day of the eighth month in the chinese calender).

On this very day is also the Ong Bon Pagoda Festival where there will be incense offering ceremony to the Chinese gods Ong Bon, Quan Cong, Quan The Am, Ba Chua Sanh.

 Whereas in many coastal localities from Ngang Pass to Ha Tien, Phu Quoc Island,there will be the festival of welcoming the Lord Whale from the 15th to the 17th day of the eighth lunar month.
The Whale is a holy sea creature, the savior of fishermen and those living in the sea in general.

There the sacrifice offering ceremony and a procession of dragon boats welcoming the Water General (Nam Hai Tuong Quan) and will be accompanied by hundreds of boats of various sizes and decoration. There will be many cultural activities taking place, stirring up the festive atmosphere as this is one of the biggest festivals of the fishermen.




A corner shop at Go Cong Street selling some of the tradition Chinese cultures festival products. Here visitors can find the lion dance costumes and lanterns.
The lanterns and the lion head are all handmade and finely crafted.

 Traditionally the Chinese use Lion and Dragon dancers as a symbol of auspiciousness and blessings to mark key dates such as Chinese New Year or the opening of a new business premises. The difference is lion dance only requires two people whilst the dragon dance needs a team of at least 15 people to perform the task.




  A smaller sized lion dance headgear novelty and the laughing Buddha headgear are popular novelties for the children.

 In China, the lions are considered as a symbol for joy and happiness.
From the fourth day to the fifteenth of the New Year festival, lion dance groups tour from village to village in traditional China and excite all the spectators with their electrifying performance.

 However, the lion dances of Northern China and Southern China display a great difference in their appearance and the art of demonstration.
The Northern style Lions have muzzles which make them resemble like dogs, and are deep orange and red in color.
The Southern style Lions have flatter faces similar to lions, but are adorned with a horn and two antenna style whiskers.
If you were to watch the Chinese movie entitled "Once Upon A time in China"(Wong Fei-Hung),the lion dance acrobatic duel stunt by the Chinese martial art triad groups are very fascinating.

The lanterns have been designed to attract the interest of children with the many cartoon features,even adults can join in to carry the lanterns on that day.

The head mask that look like a person face is actually the "Laughing Buddha" who is a buddy to the lion dance troupes.

 His ultimate task is to tease and fool around with the lion while it was dancing so as to make it dance and roll-over making all sorts of dancing patterns. He will normally has a fan with him.

 Banner reads "Chung Mung Hai Ho" meaning "Wishing You Good Luck".
Chinese like to have the color red(pinyin:hong ser) because it symbolizes good fortune and joy.
A red envelope(pinyin:hong bao) is a monetary gift which is given in Chinese society during holiday or special occasions.
The red color of the packet symbolizes good luck.

Red is strictly forbidden at funerals as it is a traditionally symbolic color of happiness.

Vietnamese colours name: Màu trắng(white) -Màu đen(black) - Màu đỏ(red) -Màu vàng(yellow) - Màu xanh lá cây(green) -Màu xanh (blue) - Màu nâu(brown) - Màu cam(orange) -Màu xám(gray) - Màu hồng(pink) - Màu tím(purple)





Paper Lanterns and Chinese praying peripherals shops all along Hai Thuong Lang Ong Road(the main artery road into Cholon Chinatown).

 A round lantern is a common features but the Vietnamese seemed to prefer the conical or balloon shape.

I think it also resembles a heart shape and look very nice indeed. They are not paper made but from silk fabrics.
 These shop sells a larger version that are normally hung in shopfronts,shopping complexes, residential houses and temples. 



For the children,the smaller lantern version comes in various shapes some depicting animals like butterflies,fish,rabbits,dragon etc.

There are also lanterns which spin around when a candle is placed inside (den Keo Quan), symbolizing the seasonal spinning of the earth around the sun.

Modern days lantern are plastic made and battery operated. On the night of Lantern festivals,the children will parade on the streets and singing with colorful lanterns in hands.