Can Vietnam – Vietnam – With the outbreak of dawn, the city river is filled with loud tourist boat engines.

At the distance, traditional wood boats appear through the dim light where the floating Cai Rang market is displayed.

Cai Rang, and other markets like that, was among the most cultural symbols that could be purchased in southern Vietnam, with a date dating back to the early twentieth century.

Before developing roads and bridges, countless waterways in the Delta area were the main means of trade and transportation, which leads to the development of floating markets where channels converge.

But over the past two decades, the markets have diminished in size along with the rapid economic development in Vietnam – gradually first, then suddenly – and not only two of the ten main markets in the region with any great presence.

“When I visited for the first time [Cai Rang] “The market in 2011 was much larger,” Lynh, a local guide, told Al Jazerara.

“Now about a third of this size,” said Lynah, who led the daily tours to the market even a few years ago.

Today, Cai Rang consists of about 200 ships, less than half of more than half of them in the 1990s.

The nearby phone Dien market has shrunk to less than ten boats and has largely disappeared from tourism paths.

Cai Be, an exciting market once in the neighboring Ben Tree County, among those who completely disappeared, as it was closed forever in 2021.

Historically, the largest market in Delta, CAI still looks like a group of high-sized boats-at least from afar.

On a careful examination, the market looks more superior. Nowadays, tourist boats are a large part of the traffic on the water.

However, the market works largely as always, as sampans are loaded with products from the largest “sentence”, which are then returned to the markets on the ground.

For many sellers, boats are doubled as homes.

Daily life is fully displayed where boat residents are washing dishes with water from the river, cooking meals on small stoves, or relaxing in the hings – often with children and dogs for pets.

But behind light magic, anxiety is still.

“The work is not good,” PUC, who works on the market to sell pineapple to tourists, told Al Jazerera.

Sometimes only 10 pineapple per day sells in 20,000 Vietnamese Dong ($ 0.78) each.

“Only in the peak season, it is possible to earn enough money. The rest of the time, we hardly stay.”

Even two years ago, PhuC and her husband worked as wholesalers who sell yam.

Every week over the past 25 years, they have been traveling to a long boycott, near the city of Hoshi Minh, to store their boat – a process that took several days there and return.

But as road infrastructure improved in the past decade, ground trade has become faster and more effective, which replaces the need for river -based trade.

“The only people who continue to work here are those who cannot buy a large car or car [to deliver produce]Tell her husband, second, Al -Jazeera.

Tuyen, who works as a wholesaler who sells onions, garlic and sweet potatoes, as is the case.

“Ten years ago, I used to get good money to do so, but now it is enough to pass,” she told Al -Jazeera Island. “Everything is more difficult now.”

Tuyen said that the Covid-19s was a turning point, and then many sellers, unable to meet their needs, turned to work on the ground.

In response to a question why you did not join them, she referred to rental fees for a place in the market – about five million Vietnamese Dong ($ 195).

On the boat, it has no rent to pay.

“I prefer staying on the ground – it’s more comfortable and comfortable – but I don’t have money.”

While improved roads are often martyred as a reason for the decline in markets, other factors have played a role.

Many smaller markets have struggled to recover from temporary closure during the epidemic, as it prompted health and safety regulations to turn into land markets.

Poor planning has exacerbated the situation.

To treat the annual floods of the Mekong, the authorities in recent years have built the flood protection walls along the banks of Kanu Tho River, one of many waterways.

While these walls helped reduce floods and corrosion, the lack of sidewalks made it difficult to trade on the river to continue.

The broader cultural transformations also cast a cloud on the future of the floating market.

With Vietnam modification, young generations manage their appearance on their parents ’trade, and seek to obtain better educational opportunities and job opportunities.

“My daughter does not want to work here,” Fook said. It prefers to work on its special conditions for the company and invest in stocks. It is not like us – she does not like this life. “

Although the sellers may worry about the future, the survival of Cai Rang is no less than a few consequences for the ordinary resident in the city of Cannes.

These days, most people shop in supermarkets and shopping centers and have a good reason to visit Cai Rang.

“For me, nothing special,” said a hotel receptionist, who visited the market only once, on the island, asking not to be named.

However, tourism contributes about 6 percent to the city’s economy, as Cai Rang was floating on the main clouds.

In 2017, the city welcomed 7.5 million tourists, according to official figures.

While the expatriates reached 5.9 million in 2023 after they slipped into anything in practice during the epidemic, the numbers remain much less than its peak.

Much of this is due to the consequences of the epidemic and a lower number of flights from other parts of Vietnam, according to his son Ca Huynh, who runs a tourist company in Can Tho.

If the floating market is supposed to close, the efforts made to revive tourism become more difficult.

Huynh, who branches to cooking lessons and channel boats tours outside the path, said the efforts to maintain the market can focus on its attractiveness to tourists, noting the floating markets in Bangkok, rather than its commercial job.

“In the Bangkok markets, they sell many different things,” Huenin told Al -Jazeera. “Here, most of them sell fruits and vegetables.”

She said that the government will need more effort to encourage merchants to stay, including building new sidewalks to empty goods and help them raise their profits – which you think is unlikely to look at the cost.

In any case, Huynh said, the market will lose its authenticity and cultural value.

“In my opinion, it will not be the same,” she said.

By 8 am, today’s trade ended in Cai Rang.

The sun risen over the banks of the river lined with a scratch, and the sellers relax on their home boats. But Linah, the tourist guide, suspects that serenity will continue and expect to close Cai Rang within a few years.

She said, “Then I have to look for a new job.”