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Vietnam’s
capital city, has to be one of Asia’s most
fascinating cities offering a unique blend
of oriental and western charm. It is a city
of exotic brightly painted temples and
pagodas, elegant ochre-washed colonial
villas, bustling narrow streets and alleys,
grand tree-lined boulevards and shaded
lakes. First
established as Vietnam’s capital in 1010,
when it was known as Thang Long, the city’s
name changed several times before it
eventually became Hanoi in 1831.
The
Temple of Literature,
the site of Vietnam’s first university,
dates back to 1070 and its peaceful gardens
and pavilions offer a relaxing respite from
Hanoi’s busy streets. Today Hanoi is still a
city that attracts many of the country’s
intellectuals as well as artists and
writers.
Paintings
by Vietnam’s new generation of artists can
be seen for sale in the dozens of galleries
that have sprung up in recent years in and
around the city’s
Old Quarter.
It is here in the Old Quarter that Hanoi
began life as a commercial centre over a
thousand years ago. The original 36 streets
that make up the Old Quarter are named after
the goods once sold there such as silk,
paper, silver, copper, herbs, cotton, fish
and chicken.
Nowadays the goods on sale are more likely to be t-shirts,
sunglasses or embroidered table cloths but step back from the main
streets and you will still find shops specializing in candlesticks,
pagoda flags, engraved headstones and traditional musical
instruments amongst others.
Just
to the south of the bustling Old Quarter streets is Hoan Kiem Lake,
an oasis of calm right in the centre of
the city. Old men, students and weary tourists stop to rest in the
shade on the park’s benches while local residents begin their day
with a lakeside tai chi workout. Some of the capital’s finest
colonial buildings can be found in the area of Hoan Kiem Lake
including the magnificent Opera House, History Museum and the
Metropole Hotel.
A couple of
kilometers west of Hoan Kiem Lake is the imposing granite structure
housing Ho Chi Minh’s
Mausoleum.
The mausoleum overlooks Ba Dinh Square,
the square where President Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam’s Declaration of
Independence at the end of World War Two. Nearby is the lotus
flower-shaped temple of the One Pillar
Pagoda, first
built in 1049, and the grand palace that was once the residence of
the Governor-General of French Indochina.
Like
Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi also has some great shopping, particularly
in the Old Quarter where bargains include silk, embroidery,
handicrafts and original works of art. There are some interesting
day trip options from Hanoi including Hoa Lu,
the site of Vietnam’s first capital, Tam Coc Caves,
the Perfume
Pagoda and Hoa Binh,
the home of many ethnic minority groups.
Hanoi-
Vietnam
Highlights
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The Temple
of Literature for culture and tranquility
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The 36
streets of the Old Quarter for souvenir shopping and an
insight into what old Hanoi was like
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Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum to see modern Vietnam’s great
leader |
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The Water Puppet Theatre for a performance of a unique
northern Vietnamese form of entertainment |
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A day trip to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc for a sampan ride
through the rice fields and caves of the ‘Dry Halong
Bay’ |
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