Dordoy Bazaar is a large wholesale and retail market in Bishkek

Bishkek

Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...

, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...

. It is one of Asia's greatest public market places, comparable to Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

's Chatuchak weekend market

Chatuchak weekend market

Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok is the largest market in Thailand. Frequently called J.J., it covers over 35 acres and contains upwards of 5,000 stalls. It is estimated that the market receives 200,000 visitors each day. Most stalls only open on Saturdays and Sundays though Jatujak Plaza,...

 or Tehran's Grand Bazaar

Tehran's Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar is a historical market situated in the capital of Iran, Tehran. A bazaar is a type of marketplace, although many - such as Tehran's Grand bazaar - fulfill many additional functions rather than merely trade...

. It's been described by a Western journalist as "a modern monument to the power of raw commerce".

Dordoy Bazaar is not just a major shopping and employment center for the Bishkek metropolitan area and entire Chuy River Valley region, but also one of the main entrepots

Entrepôt

An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...

 through which consumer goods from China arrive to shops and markets in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan. According to some economists, this re-export (the other center for which, targeting Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, is the Karasuu Bazar at Kara-Suu

Kara-Suu

Kara-Suu is a town, river and valley in Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan, in the Fergana Valley. The town is 23km northeast of Osh and is the capital of Kara-Suu District....

, Osh Province

Osh Province

Osh Province is a province of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Osh. It is bounded by Jalal-Abad Province, Naryn Province, Xinjiang, China, Tajikistan, Batken Province and Uzbekistan.-Geography:...

) is one of two largest economic activities of Kyrgyzstan.

Location and organization

The Dordoy market stretches for more than a kilometer on the north-eastern outskirts of Bishkek, just within the bypass highway that skirts the city in the north. Legally, it is an agglomeration of several independent markets adjacent to each other, but as there are no fences, the borders between components are not particularly noticeable. According to a 2007 city atlas, the component markets are:

• Ak-Suu
• Vostok ('East')
• Sever ('North')
• Muras-Sport
• Alkanov i K ('Alkanov & Co.)
• Evropa ('Europe')
• Kerben
• Kitay ('China')
• Zhonghai (which formally is considered a separate market from Dordoy)

Most of the market is built of double-stacked shipping containers

Containerization

Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...

. Typically, the lower container is used as a shop, while the upper one is used for additional storage. According to a 2005 newspaper report, there were some 6,000 to 7,000 containers in the bazaar; around 20,000 people worked there (as vendors, security, service personnel).

The containers, organized in dozens of rows, form streets and plazas of a sort. Smaller buildings between the blocks of containers house restaurants, administrative offices, toilets, hotels, and other ancillary structures.

History

The market is said to date its origin to 1992, its 15th anniversary being celebrated in 2007.
In the view of journalists from the neighbouring Uzbekistan, one of the causes for the rise of Bishkek's Dordoy Bazaar was the decline of Uzbekistan's major wholesale markets. After the Uzbek government transferred Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

's huge Hippodrome Market under the jurisdiction of their country Ministry of the Interior in 1998, increase police harassment of the traded resulted in Hippodrome's losing its dominant position in the region; after the reconstruction that it underwent in 2002-2003, Hippodrome, which used to have 8,600 trading outlets and 18,000 traders, was succeeded by much smaller Chilanzar goods market with merely 2,540 outlets. A similar story took place in Jizzakh

Jizzakh

Jizzakh is a city and the center of Jizzakh Province in Uzbekistan, northeast of Samarkand.Jizzakh was an important Silk Road junction on the road connecting Samarkand with Fergana Valley...

, where in 2006 the authorities closed down the Dunyo Bozori (Uzbek for "World Market") marketplace, which had been set up by Chinese traders, in order to replace it by Abu Sahiy Nur shopping centre built by Lola Karimova

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva is the younger daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.In January 2008 she was appointed to her current role as Uzbekistan's Permanent Representative to UNESCO.Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva was born in 1978....

. As Uzbekistan's markets declines, purchasing activities to Uzbek buyers have shifted to Kyrgyzstan's Bishkek or Kara-Suu

Kara-Suu

Kara-Suu is a town, river and valley in Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan, in the Fergana Valley. The town is 23km northeast of Osh and is the capital of Kara-Suu District....

.

Ownership and management

Most of the marketplace (Dordoy proper, i.e. everything but Zhonghai) is run by OsOO

Joint stock company

A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...

 "Dordoy Bazari" , a member of the
"group of companies" called Dordoi Association. The Zhonghai section is run by Dordoi Asia, another member of the same group.

Besides the Dordoy markets, Dordoi Association also owns the smaller Alamedi Market, closer to central Bishkek (via OsOO "Alamudun Bazari" ), Dordoi Plaza shopping mall in downtown Bishkek, a number of manufacturing and service companies in Bishkek and elsewhere, a beach resort at Koshkol'

Koshkol'

Koshkol is a village in the Issyk Kul Province of Kyrgyzstan. The village name has also been transliterated as Kosh-Kël' or Kosh-Kel'.It is located in the Issyk Kul District of this province, near the northern shore of Lake Issyk Kul between Balykchy and Cholpon-Ata. The village includes two...

 on Lake Issyk Kul

Issyk Kul

Issyk Kul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes; hence its name, which means "hot...

, and the soccer team Dordoi-Dynamo Naryn

Dordoi-Dynamo Naryn

FC Dordoi is a Kyrgyz football club based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The club was founded in 1998.The club is owned by Dordoi Association, the group of companies which also owns Dordoy Bazaar in Bishkek.-History:*1997: Founded as FC Dordoi Naryn....

.

The trade

Different sections of the markets specialize in various types of consumer goods, including clothing, shoes, furniture, electric and electronic equipment, toys, automotive supplies, construction materials, etc. While some kinds of groceries (e.g. factory-packaged canned goods or sweets) are sold at Dordoy, it is not a produce market; occasional produce vendors are present there merely to feed the vendors and customers.

Most of the goods sold at Dordoy arrive from China, with the second largest source (perhaps 30% of all imports) being Turkey. One can also find clothing from Thailand and Europe, music CDs from Russia, and goods from many other countries in Eurasia, as well as a selection of local products.

Although many of the people working and shopping at the Bazaar speak Kyrgyz

Kyrgyz language

Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, also Kirghiz, Kyrghiz, Qyrghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan...

, Russian is the main language used in trade.

Transportation

There is no rail access to the market, so all the goods come and leave the bazaar by truck or car.

Two large plazas near the northern and southern ends of the market are connected by frequent minibus

Marshrutka

Marshrutka , from marshrutnoye taksi is a share taxi in the CIS countries, the Baltic states, and Bulgaria. Marshrutnoye taksi literally means routed taxicab...

 service with central Bishkek. From the northern plaza, minibuses also run to various points throughout Chuy Province

Chuy Province

Chuy Province or Chui Province is the northernmost province of the Kyrgyz Republic. It is bounded on the north by Kazakhstan, and clockwise, Issyk Kul Province, Naryn Province, Jalal-Abad Province and Talas Province...

, including Sokuluk

Sokuluk

Sokuluk is a large village with a de jure population of 11,968 in the Chuy Province of Kyrgyzstan.Sokuluk is the administrative center of Sokuluk District, and is located about 5 km away from the town of Shopokov, the main economic center of the area.-History:According to historians, Sokuluk...

, Kant

Kant, Kyrgyzstan

Kant is a city in the Chuy Valley of northern Kyrgyzstan, some 20 km from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.It is the administrative center of the Ysyk-Ata District ....

, Tokmok

Tokmok

Tokmok ; , Tokmak) is a city of about 53,087 in northern Kyrgyzstan, east of the country's capital of Bishkek. Its geographical location is ; its altitude is 816 m above sea level. From 2004 until 19 April 2006 it served as the administrative seat of Chui Province...

, and Korday border crossing (on the Kazakhstan border). For the convenience of the "shuttle traders", charter buses run from Dordoy to several major cities in Kazakhstan and in Russia's Urals

Ural (region)

Ural is a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It extends approximately from north to south, from the Arctic Ocean to the bend of Ural River near Orsk city. The boundary between Europe and Asia runs along the eastern side of...

 and Western Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

.

External links

• Isaac Rotschild, "Tour de Dordoi" - Photos and essay on Dordoi Bazaar. The Spektator Magazine, No. 3, Dec 2008/Jan 2009), pp. 20-22. Dordoy (Dordoi) map