An old woman has spent nearly half her life working at the night newspaper market in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.

The life of newspaper vendors who work day and night is already hard, but it is even harder during the unpredictable sunny and rainy days in Ho Chi Minh City. Therefore, most people who follow this profession must have good health to stay in it for a long time.

To better understand the hardships of newspaper vendors, we followed 71-year-old Tran Thi Ngoc Anh, owner of a newspaper stall on Phan Van Han Street, Binh Thanh District (HCMC), who has been working with paper newspapers since the 1990s.

Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Anh, 71 years old, owner of a newspaper stall on Phan Van Han Street, Binh Thanh District (HCMC), who has been working with paper newspapers for 34 years, starts her working day at 2 am with a motorbike full of newspapers.

Ms. Anh was present in front of Thanh Nien Newspaper headquarters on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street (District 3) to receive freshly printed newspapers and stack them neatly on her car to transport to her stall.

While the streets were still immersed in the quiet night, Mrs. Anh had already started her working day. On her old motorbike, Mrs. Anh traveled to distribution points in District 1, District 3, Phu Nhuan... to receive newspapers on time.

Under the dim streetlights of the late night, Ms. Anh stopped by the "newspaper market" in front of the Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper office on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street (District 3). This is considered the largest "newspaper market" in Ho Chi Minh City, where agents distribute newspapers to small newsstands throughout the city and also sell "fresh newspapers" at the market to the first customers of the day.

When the city begins to fall asleep, it is also the time when Mrs. Anh's small newsstand lights up to start selling newspapers that have just been brought back from the "newspaper market" and newspaper distribution points.

The newspaper market that Ms. Anh has been attached to for many years is located on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street (District 3). At around 1 a.m., agents start coming here to sort newspapers before delivering them to newsstands and customers.

The newspaper market is not only a place for newspaper dealers to sort newspapers, but also a place to sell "fresh newspapers" on the spot for customers who want to buy newspapers early when it's still dark.

Early in the morning, the weather starts to get colder as the temperature drops, many people take a nap right at the newspaper market, their heads resting on stacks of hot newspapers just out of the oven waiting to be delivered to customers in the morning.

The first customers of the day come to Mrs. Anh's small newsstand to buy the morning paper with lots of hot news at 4 a.m.

The small corner of Mrs. Anh's newsstand with dozens of newspapers and magazines on Phan Van Han Street, Binh Thanh District opens at dawn. As one of the first customers to buy newspapers at 4 a.m., Mr. Le Viet Khanh, 57 years old, confided: "Every morning when I wake up early, I stop by here to buy a paper newspaper to read. If I don't have one, I feel like something is missing. Nowadays, people prefer to read news on their phones, but for me, paper newspapers are like a treasure trove of information worth reading every morning. Reading them over and over again has become a habit."

Ms. Anh's work usually starts from 2am to 12pm when the pre-ordered printed newspapers are delivered to customers. But in recent years, with the explosion of the internet and many social platforms, the number of paper newspaper stands has decreased, and paper newspapers are also much harder to sell. The customers of large and small newspaper stands in Ho Chi Minh City are now mainly regular customers who have been with them for a long time.

"There are customers who have been with my newsstand for decades, and they still come by every morning to support me. They have been with me since the beginning, so they give me a very familiar feeling. Nowadays, people don't read newspapers much anymore, but I will still stick with this job until the end, and I have no intention of switching to anything else," Ms. Anh confided.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cu-ba-gan-nua-doi-nguoi-gan-bo-voi-cho-bao-dem-giua-long-tphcm-185240620185738006.htm