The bright yellow building completed in 1937 has a 26-metre high central dome, with four tall arch-roofed arms branching out diagonally across the block, creating vast hallways housing countless stalls and a variety of goods.

It was decided to build it on a marshland in the center of the Chinatown of the time, but the project did not start until 1934 because of the turmoil of the Great Depression.

The market was designed by Jean Desbois, the architect of the city from 1931 to 1937,[1] and its implementation was supervised by Louis Chauchon and the engineer Wladimir Kandaouroff.

During the Franco-Thai war in 1941 the market was bombed by Thai aircraft, causing heavy damage, and it had to be temporarily closed.

[2] The entrances to the market are lined with souvenir merchants hawking everything from T-shirts and postcards to silver curios and kramas.