In Berlin’s Dong Xuan Center around 240 different shops and vendors (mostly from Vietnam) offer a fascinating mix of clothes, jewelry, toilet seats, Dollar Store wares, Asian groceries and magazines, bulletin boards, restaurants, hair and nail salons, travel agencies, mannequin heads and rubber chicken… to name only a few things I saw.
Prices are low and get even lower if you buy wholesale, which is really the point of the market.
In an unusual move for German commerce, the Asian market is open on Sundays (but closed on Tuesdays). The center is located at Herzbergstraße 128 in Lichtenberg (Eastern Berlin). “Dong Xuan” means “spring meadow”.
The Vietnamese population in Berlin is significant due to ties between the former East Germany and Vietnam. A reason why there are so many wonderful Vietnamese restaurants in Berlin and why I consider Vietnamese food to be just as much “Berlin cuisine” as Döner Kebab, Falafel and Currywurst.
