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Anyone who has ever
visited Hanoi will probably tell you that it may be the most beautiful
city in all of Asia. People have settled here along the Red River for a
thousand years. Nestled along wooded boulevards among the city’s two
dozen lakes you will find architectural souvenirs left by all who
conquered this great valley, from the Chinese who first came in the last
millennium to the French, booted out in our own century.
The trip into the city
from Noi Bai Airport takes about an hour and offers some poignant
glimpses of modern Vietnamese life: farmers tending their fields, great
rivers, modern highways that abruptly become bumpy roads. The drive is
especially breathtaking at dusk when the roads fill with bicycles, and
everything takes on the same deep colors as the modern paintings you see
in Hanoi's galleries. Somehow the setting sun seems enormous here as it
dips into the cornfields on the horizon. On the edge of the city the
road dissolves into a maze of winding, narrow, wooded lanes. You are
surrounded by roadside artisans, shops and taverns, then by graceful
villas and commuters on bicycles, cyclos and motorbikes. Modern
buildings appear from nowhere, looking so out of place that you have to
wonder if they were dropped from the sky and just left where they came
to rest. While you tell yourself that nothing as preposterous as Hanoi
can be so beautiful, you cannot help but be dazzled.
Ho Chi Minh 's
Mausoleum
After
two years of construction, the mausoleum of President Ho Chi Minh was
officially inaugurated on August 29,1975. The facade of the mausoleum
faces the historic Ba Dinh Square. The mausoleum is divided into
three layers with a combined height of 21.6 meters. The lowest layer
forms a terraced stand exclusively used for the presidium of grand
meetings organized at the grassy Ba Dinh Square. The second layer is the
central piece of the mausoleum where the remains of the president is
kept in a chamber accessible through a series of passages and flights of
marble staircases. The upper part of the mausoleum is the roof
resembling a three terraced steps. The facade of the upper part bears an
inscription "President Ho Chi Minh" made of dark violet precious stone.
The mausoleum is the place to keep the remains of President Ho Chi Minh,
the great patriotic who had been conferred the title "World Cultural
Activist" and the national hero. The conferment was made on the occasion
of the centenary anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's Birthday
(1890-1990). The mausoleum project was the results of artistic labor of
both Vietnamese and former Soviet Union scientists in respect for
President Ho Chi Minh.
Ho Chi Minh 's
Residence
(Nha
Bac Ho). After 1954 Ho Chi Minh had the run of the Presidential Palace,
but the ostentation was too much for the ascetic president, who openly
shunned luxury and preferred the humble former home of the palace's
electrician, where he lived for four years. Then, the story goes, in
1958 Ho Chi Minh moved to this simple but tasteful wooden house on
stilts, which served as his living quarters and work space until his
death in 1969. An elegant but spare study -- some books, his small
typewriter, a few newspapers, and an electric fan presented to him by a
group of Japanese Communists are visible -- adjoins his equally spare
bedroom. Downstairs he received his guests: foreign dignitaries,
Politburo members, army cadres, and schoolchildren. Surrounding the
house are well-tended gardens with flame trees, willows, mango trees,
and aromatic frangipani. Cyprus trees thrive on the edge of the pond,
which Ho had stocked with carp. A crisp clap of the hands apparently
still brings the fish to the surface.
Regardless of Ho Chi Minh's faith in the accuracy of the city's
antiaircraft gunners, some doubt must be thrown on the claim that Ho Chi
Minh spent so much time in this open-air sanctum, with only the trees,
his wooden house, and a trusty old war helmet as protection. American
bombers targeted Hanoi during the war, and they surely would have
emptied their loads on Ba Dinh District had they known their archenemy
was feeding fish and conferring with his generals in the unprotected
confines
of his stilt house. Indeed, Ho's Politburo ordered the construction of a
nearby bomb shelter, later dubbed House No. 67. Legend holds that Uncle
Ho refused to use the shelter as a home, preferring to confer with the
Politburo in this fortified bunker but to sleep in his stilt house.
Before visiting Ho's residence, wait for the rest of the group that
accompanied you through the mausoleum to go on ahead; it's much more
enjoyable to walk through the jasmine-scented compound unhurried and
without the inevitable chatter of other tourists. You'll exit this area
via a pebbled pathway to the south of the mausoleum. As if they were
themselves sights on the tour, older Vietnamese intellectuals wearing
bifocals and striped cotton pajamas sit on park benches and read the
Communist Party mouthpiece, Nhan Dan (The People), or sip
green tea and smoke cigarettes. COST: 3,000d.
OPEN: Daily 7:30-11 and 1:30-4.
Hanoi Old
Quarter - Hanoi the 36 streets
As the oldest
continuously developed area of Vietnam, Hanoi's Old Quarter has a
history that spans 2,000 years and represents the eternal soul of the
city. Located between the Lake of the Rest ored
Sword, the Long Bien Bridge, a former city rampart, and a citadel wall,
the Old Quarter started as a snake and alligator-infested swamp. It
later evolved into a cluster of villages made up of houses on stilts,
and was unified by Chinese administrators who built ramparts around
their headquarters. The area was named "Dominated Annam" or "Protected
South" by the Chinese. The Old Quarter began to acquire its reputation
as a crafts area when the Vietnamese attained independence in the 11th
century and King Ly Thai To built his palace there. In the early 13th
century, the collection of tiny workshop villages which clustered around
the palace walls evolved into craft cooperatives, or guilds. Skilled
craftsmen migrated to the Quarter, and artisan guilds were formed by
craftsmen originating from the same village and performing similar
services. Members of the guilds worked and lived together, creating a
cooperative system for transporting merchandise to the designated
streets in the business quarter.
Because
inhabitants of each street came from the same village, streets developed
a homogeneous look. Commoners' homes evolved out of market stalls,
before streets were formed. Because storekeepers were taxed according to
the width of their storefront, storage and living space moved to the
rear of the buildings. Consequently, the long and narrow build ings
were called "tube houses." Typical measurements for such houses are 3
meters wide by 60 meters long. The Old Quarter has a rich religious
heritage. When the craftsmen moved from outlying villages into the
capital, they brought with them their religious practices. They
transferred their temples, pagodas and communal houses to their new
location. Each guild has one or two religious structures and honors its
own patron saint or founder. Therefore, on each street in the Old
Quarter there is at least one temple. Now, many of the old temples in
the Old Quarter have been transformed into shops and living quarters,
but some of the old buildings' religious roots can still be recognized
by the architecture of their roofs. Although the old section of
Hanoi is often called the "36 Old Streets," there are more than 36
actual streets. Some researchers believe that the number 36 came from
the 15th century when there might have been 36 guild locations, which
were workshop areas, not streets. When streets were later developed, the
guild names were applied to the streets. Others attribute the 36 to a
more abstract concept. The number nine in Asia represents the concept of
"plenty." Nine times the four directions makes 36, which simply means
"many." There are now more than 70 streets in the area.
Some streets have
achieved fame by their inclusion in popular guidebooks. Han Gai Street
offers silk clothing ready-made and tailored, embroidery, and silver
products. Hang Quat, the street that formerly sold silk and feather
fans, now stuns the visitor by its brilliantly colored funeral and
festival flags and religious objects and clothing. To Thinh Street
connects the above two and is still the wood turner's street. Hang Ma
glimmers with shiny paper products, such as gift wrappings, wedding
decorations and miniature paper objects to burn for the dead. Lan Ong
Street is a sensual delight of textures and smells emanating from the
sacks of herbal medicinal products: leaves, roots, barks, and powders.
Temple of
Literature - The first university of Vietnam
Location: Temple o f
Literature is located on Van Mieu Street, 2km west of Hoan Kiem Lake. Characteristics:
Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam is a famous historical and cultural relic
consisting of the Temple of Literature and Vietnam’s first university.
The Temple of Literature was built in 1070 in honour of Confucius, his
followers and Chu Van An, a moral figure in Vietnamese education.Quoc
Tu Giam, or Vietnam's first university, was built in 1076. Throughout
its hundreds of years of activity in the feudal, thousands of Vietnamese
scholars graduated from this university. In 1483 Quoc Tu Giam was
changed into Thai Hoc Vien (Higher Educational Institute). After decades
of war and natural disasters, the former construction was completely
destroyed. In preparation for the celebration of the 1000th
anniversary of Thang Long (present day Hanoi) another construction has
been built following the model of the previous Thai Hoc Vien on the same
ground. The work includes the front hall, the back sanctuary, lean-tos
on the left and on the right, the courtyard, and subsidiary structures.
This site preserves historical vestiges of a 1,000-year-old civilization
such as statues of Confucius and his disciples (Yan Hui, Zengshen, Zisi,
Mencius), and ancient constructions such as Khue Van Cac (Pavilion of
the Constellation of Literature) and the Worshipping Hall.
Hanoi Opera
House
(Nha
Hat Lon). The centerpiece of French architecture in Hanoi and one of the
grandest buildings in the city, the Hanoi Opera House is a small-scale
version of the Paris Opéra designed by Charles Garnier and completed in
1875. The Hanoi structure, finished in 1911, incorporates th e
same grand elements of Napoleonic architectural style. Perhaps because
of the theater's French history, its steps were the site of frequent
denunciations against colonial rule. Immediately following World War II,
in August 1945, Vietminh troops commandeered the Opera House and
announced from its balcony the triumph of the August Revolution.
Complete with an enhanced orchestra pit for 60 musicians and a movable
stage, the 400-seat, three-tier theater hosts national celebrations,
ballet, symphonies, pop and rock concerts, and opera. Seeing a show may
be the only way to get into the Opera House, as its doors are usually
closed.
Hoan
Kiem Lake
The lake
which is not as large as Ho Tay to the northwest is situated in the
center of the city. Because of its unique location Sword Restored Lake
is billed as a basket of lower placed in the middle of Hanoi. The name
of Sword Restored Lake is derived from a legend which has it that King
Le Thai To had a precious sword. The sword. The sword had always been on
his side during the 10-year resistance against the Ming aggressors.
After he won over the foreign aggression and returned to Thang Long
Citadel. One day he went out and boarded a royal boat to cruise in the
lake. Suddenly he saw a giant turtle emerging and coming towards him.
The king withdrew his sword and pinpointed with the sword the direction
of the coming turtle for his soldiers' attention. All of a sudden, the
turtle caught the sword between its teeth from the king's hand and
submerged. The king thought that it might have been that during the
resistance war against the Minh aggression, the king was offered sword
by genie to help him defeat the enemy. Now when peace has returned the
genie appeared and took back the sword. With that thought in mind, King
Le Thai To named the lake after episode as Ho Hoan Kiem (Lake of
Restored Sword).
One Pillar
Pagoda
It is
a group of structures consisting of a pagoda and a tower built in the
middle of a square lake. The whole group was officially called Dien Huu
Pagoda and Lien Hoa Tower, but the tower has traditionally been called
the One-Pillar Pagoda. It is of a square shape and each side is nine
feet long with a curved roof placed on a round stone pillar. The pillar
is approximately 4 feet in diameter, twelve feet high (excluding the un derground
section) supporting a system of beams of timber, thus making up a
framework for the tower resembling a blossoming lotus stretching up out
of the square pond that has a surrounding brick wall. From the edge,
there is a narrow brick path running through the pond to a nice ladder
leading up into the Buddhist tower
where there is a notice reading that the Lotus tower and pagoda were
built in memory of a dream had by King Ly. The inscription states "King
Ly Thai Tong (1028-1054) dreamt of seeing the Quan An Buddha sitting on
a lotus tower to which the King was led. Upon waking, the King told his
lords about his dream and sought their advice. Some of them advised him
to build a stone pillar in the middle of the pond and place a Buddhist's
lotus tower on the pillar just as the King had dreamt." Then Buddhist
monks were asked to pray and worship for the King's longevity.
Consequently, the pagoda was called "lasting life" (Dien Huu) and that
took place in 1049.
The One-Pillar Pagoda has undergone numerous changes and repairs. On
September 11, 1954 before their withdrawal, the French army mined and
destroyed the Lien Hoa Dai. When the liberation forces took over Hanoi,
the government rebuilt the pagoda in accordance with its original
structure and completed it in April 1955.
Hoa
Lo Prison - Hanoi Hilton
There's not much left of the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," the prison that
once housed captured American servicemen during the Vietnam War,
including U.S. Air Force pilot Douglas "Pete" Peterson, the first U.S.
ambassador to Hanoi. What does remain, however, is a small section of
the old prison, which is now a museum, and the tree under which Do Muoi,
the aging former general secretary of the Communist Party, used to sit
while writing on the backs of leaves during his imprisonment by the
French in the years of Vietminh resistance.
Hoa
Lo Prison Museum is a blunt reminder of the horrors of colonialism and
wartime imprisonment. Here, through the front gates of the old French
Maison Centrale (Central House, or Prison), built in 1896, you can get a
handle on what life was like for Vietnamese prisoners held during
France's occupation of Vietnam. (The number of prisoners under the
French grew from 615 in 1913 to 2,000 in 1953.) In the southern hall,
beyond the grisly guillotine and body basket, are cells where death row
prisoners, including Hoang Van Thu, Tran Dan Ninh, and Nguyen Van Cu
(who escaped and became a powerful early leader of modern Vietnam), were
held. These cells are dank, dark, and anything but welcoming.
On
exhibit upstairs are Vietnamese propaganda photos of American POWs,
including Senator John McCain and former Ambassador Peterson, cheerily
shooting pool, cooking, and writing letters. You won't be able to see
the building where the American pilots were kept since it has been torn
down, as has the cell from which Do Muoi and 100 other prisoners escaped
in 1945 through the maze of sewers that ran under the prison, parts of
which are on display in the courtyard.
If
you're looking for historical detail about the prison, you may be
disappointed by the museum's guidebooks, which are far more inclined to
talk about the size of the cells than reveal any nuggets about what took
place behind the musty yellow walls. Note, too, that there's little
information in English at the museum. COST:
10,000d. OPEN: Tues.-Sun. 8:30-11:30 and
1:30-4:30.
Ho Chi Minh 's
Museum
The
museum displays relics about the life and work of President Ho Chi Minh,
a cultural figure and hero of the national liberation movement
(1890-1969). The museum was inaugurated on May 19,1990, the anniversary
of the Centenary Birthday of President Ho Chi Minh.
Address:3 Ngoc Ha St, Hanoi. Tel:(84-4) 8263752 or 8255435
Vietnam History
Museum
Situated at # 1 Trang Tien Street, behind Hanoi's Municipal Theater,
this museum was originally part of the Vien Dong Bac Co School that was
founded in 1932 by the French. At that time, the museum exhibited a
collection of ancient artifacts collected from all over southeast Asia.
In 1958, four years after the French lost control of Indochina, France
gave the building to Vietnam and it became the national History Museum.
Both floors of the museum house thousands of artifacts displayed in
order of age, from ancient to contemporary. In the Stone Age section,
you'll find tools and instruments for hunting and fighting made of
polished stone, evidence of pre-historic ancestors living in present-day
Vietnam. Included are stone axes chipped three to four hundred thousand
years ago that were unearthed at Do Mountain in Thanh Hoa province,
proof that the country is a cradle of civilization.
The Bronze Age section of the museum is famous for its bronze drums, the
most notable of which is Ngoc Lu's majestic and beautiful drum which has
been studied by scholars from all over the world for its implications on
sculpture, its use and the manufacturing technology of its time. Also on
exhibit are bronze axes, javelins, daggers, spears and other bronze
weapons used for close range and distance fighting, weapons from the
period of the Hung kings, during which Vietnam was first founded and Co
Loa's 2nd century BC thin and thorny bronze arrows which so frightened
northern invaders that they gained a reputation for being magical.
For the past 2,000 years, Vietnam's history has been a continuous
struggle against foreign invaders. The museum's many photographs of
pagodas, temples, fortresses, gravesites, famous figures and generals
and many important documents, well known sayings and artifacts convey
the indomitable will of the people.
Fine Arts Museum Hanoi
This
is a national museum founded in June 1966. It displays art works and
objects of the various nationalities living in Vietnam in every period.
Prominent are collections of painting of great values by such famous
contemporary artists as To Ngoc Van, Nguyen Phan Chanh, Tran Van Can and
Bui Xuan Phai, etc,.
Address: 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc St, Hanoi. Tel: (84-4) 265801 or 233084
Museum Of Ethnology Hanoi Vietnam
Vietnam
Museum of Ethnology is both a research centre and a public museum
exhibiting the ethnic groups of Vietnam. The mission of the Museum is
scientific research, collection, documentation, conservation, exhibition
and preserving the cultural and historic patrimony of the nation’s
different ethnic groups. The museum also serves to guide research,
conservation, and technology that are specific to the work of an
ethnographic museum.
In its planning for the future, the Museum intends to present the
cultures and civilisations of other countries of South-East Asia as well
as in the region
West Lake - Tay Ho Hanoi
This
is a big lake in inner Hanoi covering an area of hundreds of hectares
and the road around it is ten and a half miles long. Geographers have
shown that the lake was once part of the Red River left behind when the
river changed its course. It is perhaps due to changes in the courses of
rivers and lakes that there are so many legends about them and their
names. For instance, according to the "Ho Tinh" story, the lake was
named after Xac Cao. The legend tells that there was a nine-tailed fox
hiding itself in the area with the intention to harm the people. Long
Quan raised the level of the water in order to destroy the fox's lair.
The cave he occupied collapsed and was turned into the lake. According
to another version, that of the "Bell Casting Giant," the lake had
another name, "Golden Buffalo." This story tells of a giant amassing all
the black bronze from the north in order to cast a bell which when
struck, would echo throughout the countryside. Because black bronze was
the mother of gold, the north's golden buffalo heard the sound and
desperately searched for its mother. It came to this area and repeatedly
trampled upon it to such an extent that the earth sunk and it became a
lake.
According to ancient manuscripts however, this lake was written into
11th century history as Dam Dam (Frost Lake) and by the 15th century, it
was called Tay Ho (West Lake) and has long been a site of interest.
Since the Ly-Tran dynasties, kings built various palaces around the lake
as sites of interest and enjoyment.
When the lake and weather are calm, boating on it is a delight. On a
walk around the lake, one can see many relics and sites of interest.
Nghi Tam Village (birthplace of the famous poetess, Ba Huyen Thanh Quan),
the Kim Lien pagoda with its unique architecture and Nhat Tan Village
with its famous garden of peaches are located around the lake. There is
also the Thien Nien pagoda dedicated to the founder of the art of
weaving, Ke Buoi village with its traditional papermaking, Dong Co
temple, and most striking of all, the Holy Mandarin Temple.
Today, with a series of newly built hotels around the lake, its beauty
is even more diversified. Together with Truc Bach Lake, the West Lake
further enriches the poetic nature of inner Hanoi while at the same time
gives the city a source of fresh fish
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