Hanoi: a thousand-year capital of lakes and trade streets

A capital by the river

Hanoi sits on the right bank of the Red River, in the heart of the northern delta. Its story as a capital is usually dated to 1010, when Emperor Lý Thái Tổ moved the royal seat here and named it Thăng Long, the Ascending Dragon. The name Hà Nội, meaning roughly the city inside the rivers, came much later, in the nineteenth century. In between, the city was a royal capital, a provincial town and a colonial administrative centre, and each period left something behind: temples, a citadel, tree-lined boulevards, and the Temple of Literature, founded in 1070 and often called the country's first university.

A city of lakes

Water defines Hanoi's map. The river once wandered across the plain and left behind dozens of lakes and ponds. Hoàn Kiếm Lake marks the symbolic centre, with the small Turtle Tower on its islet and the legend of a returned sword attached to its name. West Lake, the largest, is wider and calmer, ringed by pagodas, cafés and old lotus ponds.

The guild streets

North of Hoàn Kiếm lies the Old Quarter, often described as the thirty-six streets. Many streets still carry the name of a trade: Hàng Bạc for silver, Hàng Đường for sugar, Hàng Mã for paper offerings. The houses are narrow and deep, known as tube houses, with a shop at the front and family life behind. Small temples and communal houses are tucked between them.

Four seasons

Unlike the south, Hanoi has a real winter: grey, damp and cool, with fine drizzle late in the season. Summer is hot and heavy with storms. Many people consider autumn the city's best time, when the air clears and the streets smell of milk-flower trees in the evening. For me, that mix of old and ordinary, of temples next to motorbike repair shops, is what makes Hanoi feel like a capital that is also a neighbourhood.

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Photos: mylns65hoasphn, 4601460, michoff on Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. These are not my photographs.