Guide about Ha Noi

Hanoi is a sacred land of Vietnam. In the 3^rd century BC, Co Loa (actually belonging to Dong Anh District) was chosen as the capital of the Au Lac Nation of Thuc An Duong Vuong (the King Thuc). Hanoi later became the core of the resistance movements against the Northern invasions. Located in the middle of the Red River Delta, the town has gradually expanded to become a very populations and rich residential center. At different periods, Hanoi had been selected as the chief city of Vietnam under the Northern domination.In the autumn of Canh Tuat lunar years (1010), Ly Thai To, the founder of the Ly Dynasty, decided to transfer the capital from Hoa Lu to Dai La, and so he rebaptized it Thang Long (Soaring Dragon). The year 1010 then became an historical date for Hanoi and for the whole country in general.For about a thousand years, the capital was called Thang Long, then changing to Dong Do, Dong Kinh, and finally to Hanoi, in 1831. This sacred piece of land thereafter continued to be the theatre of many fateful events.
Tourism

Throughout the thousand years of its eventful history, marked by destruction, wars and natural calamities, Hanoi still preserves many ancient architectural works including the Old Quarter and over 600 pagodas and temples. Famous sites include the o­ne Pillar Pagoda (built in 1042), the Temple of Literature (built in 1070), Hanoi Citadel, Hanoi Opera House, President Ho Chi Minh?s Mausoleum...

By road: Hanoi is 93km from Ninh Binh, 102km from Haiphong, 153km from Thanh Hoa, 151km from Halong, 474km from Dien Bien Phu, 658km from Hue, 763km from Danang, and 1,710km from Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
Location: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is located o­n Nguyen Van Huyen Street, Cau Giay District, Hanoi.
Characteristic: It contains more than 10,000 objects, 15,000 black and white photos and hundreds of video tapes and cassettes which depict all aspects of life, activities, customs, and habits of the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam.
The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology opened at the end of 1997. Since then, it has attracted the attention of visitors as well as ethnographers and researchers from all over the world.
The museum has successfully recreated the daily life together with the religious rituals and the symbolic festivals of each ethnic group in Vietnam. Visitors have the opportunity to admire costumes, embroidery as well as outside stilt houses and habitats from the different groups.
All displayed objects mingle and supplement o­ne another to create a colourful and diversified picture of Vietnamese culture. An open-air exhibition in the museum’s spacious and peaceful ground features ethnic houses from all over Vietnam.

The displayed object area is divided into 9 parts:
- Introduction.
- Introduction of Viet (Kinh).
- Introduction of Muong, Tho, Chut ethnic groups.
- The ethnic groups belong to the Tay, Thai, and Kadai groups. Visiting hours:
8:00 - 17:00 all days; except Mon and holidays, Tet in a year.
Admission:
- Regular Admission: 20,000VND.
- Reduced Admission:
5,000VND: College and university students.
3,000 VND: Primary and secondary students.
- Free Admission: Children under 6 years of age and to Vietnam’s ethnic minority members.
The outdoor exhibition area is o­nly large enough for the most popular architectural styles to be presented. Already presented are the E De long house, the Tay stilt house, the Dao house half o­n stilts and half o­n earth, the H' Mong house whose roof is made of pomu wood, the Viet house with tile roof, the Gia Rai tomb, the Ba Na communal house, the Cham traditional houae, the Ha Nhi house made with earth-beaten walls.
There are future plans to present the Co Tu tomb and the surrounding completion of the Viet house. Between the houses, there are trees indigenous to the area of each house, zigzagging paths and a meandering stream crossed by small bridges. The outdoor museum is being realised step by step.

Vietnam History Museum
Location: Vietnam History Museum is located at No. 1 Trang Tien Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi; behind the Hanoi Opera House.
Characteristic: Vietnam History Museum was founded in September 1958 and it contains a great deal of valuable objects, which reflect all the periods of Vietnamese history.
The museum is a beautiful architectural work. It provides an area of 2,000m² for exhibition. o­n the ground floor are theme rooms:
Visiting hours:
From 8:00 to 11:30 and from 13:30 to 16:30 all days.

Vietnam Fine-Arts Museum
Location: Vietnam Fine-Arts Museumis located at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi.
Characteristic: Vietnam Fine-Arts Museum is a lively historical treasure depicting the origins and evolution of Vietnamese fine arts.
In June 1966, house No. 66 o­n Nguyen Thai Hoc Street in Ba Dinh District was transformed into the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum. Two-storey building displays the art works.

Several large and impressive piece such as heavy weapons retrieved from enemy forces and shards of planes are also o­n exhibit.

Location: Temple of Literature is located o­n Van Mieu Street, 2km west of Hoan Kiem Lake.
Characteristic: 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.

The date written o­n the temple shows that it was restored in the 10th Thanh Thai Year (1899). By investigating relics and records kept in the temple, it is estimated that the temple was built at the end of Le Dynasty and be repaired many times in Nguyen Dynasty.

Every morning, the surrounding park fills with locals who arrive to exercise and play badminton. By the way, there still are a few tortoises who call this area home.

Hoan Kiem was already considered the most beautiful lake in Hanoi when Ngoc Son Temple was built o­n a small island during the 19th century. Saint Van Xuong, considered o­ne of the brightest stars of Vietnam's literature and intellectual circles, was worshipped here. National hero Tran Hung Dao was also worshipped after he lad the Vietnamese people to victory over both Mongolian and Chinese invaders.
The temple as it is seen today is the result of renovations made by Nguyen Van Sieu in 1864. A great Hanoian writer, sieu had a large pen-shaped tower built at the entrance of the temple. o­n the upper section of the tower are three Chinese characters: ta thanh thien, which means that to write o­n the blue sky is to imply the height of a genuine and righteous person's determination and will.
Also at the entrance are: a dai nghien, or ink stand, carved from stone and resembling a peach, which is placed o­n the back of three frogs o­n top of the gate to the temple; and The Huc, or the place where the first rays of morning sunshine touch.

On the way to the temple are several cau doi, parallel sentence boards, placed o­n the wall. cau doi were part of traditional word puzzles played by Hanoi's intellectual class.

At the back is a garden of fruit trees, where the luxuriant milk fruit tree donated to Uncle Ho by his southern compatriots in 1954 stands between two lines of Hai Hung orange trees. Other valuable trees belonging to more than 30 species supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Forestry, and several provinces represent the wide variety of trees growing in Vietnam. There are also trees imported from foreign countries, such as Ngan Hoa trees, miniature rose bushes, areca trees from the Caribbean, Buddhist bamboo trees, etc. Dozens of varieties of beautifully hang from the trees which blossom all year round.
Many people know the story of how Uncle Ho came to live in a small stilt-house rather than a grand palace. But it is worth retelling. Ho Chi Minh was never o­ne for large houses and comfortable living. He was just 21 when, in 1911, he set out to travel "the five continents and the four oceans" to seek ways of saving his country. For 30 years he lived a nomadic life, changing addresses constantly. When he came back to Vietnam in 1941, he led the revolution against colonial rule and read the country’s historic Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi o­n September 2, 1945. Not long afterwards, the French attempted to reassert control of their former dominion, and Ho Chi Minh and his generals were forced into the north-western mountains. During the resistance war of 1946-54, Uncle Ho reverted to his nomadic ways, for the o­nly means of avoiding detection and capture was to live life constantly o­n the run. He moved from o­ne hide-out to another several times a month, and o­nly lived in stilt-houses. When the war was won in 1954, the Party, Government and Ho Chi Minh came back to Hanoi. But Uncle Ho eschewed the trappings of authority. A true egalitarian, he chose to live a simple life: he wore brown cotton garments and rubber sandals made from car tyros, and lived in a worker’s cottage out the back of the Presidential Palace. In 1958, Uncle Ho revisited the former resistance base in the north-west and saw some of the stilt-houses where he had spent the war years. When he got back to Hanoi, he said he wanted a similar stilt-house built o­n the grounds of the Presidential Palace itself. The Party commissioned an architect from the Department for Army Barracks to design the house, but told him to submit his plans to Uncle Ho for comment before work began. The initial design had three rooms, including a toilet. But Uncle Ho wanted the house to remain faithful to the real thing. "The stilt-house must have o­nly o­ne or two rooms, small rooms at that, and definitely no toilet," he said. The architect amended the designs, and the stilt-house that Ho Chi Minh moved into o­n May 17, 1958, had two rooms of just 10sq.m each. He lived and worked there for the remaining 11 years of his life.
Today, the stilt-house and its furnishings have been preserved must as they were in the 1960s. In the area under the house, Ho Chi Minh would receive visitors and meet members of the Political Bureau. In the centre of the floor is a long table, with wooden and bamboo chairs around it. Uncle Ho used a rattan armchair in the left-hand corner to sit and read, or rest. In another corner are three telephones that he used to talk to the Political Bureau, the Operations Department and others, and a steel helmet that he wore during the years of the American War.
In the right-hand corner, he kept an aquarium with goldfish to amuse visiting children. The two rooms of the stilt-house are sparsely furnished. o­ne, the bedroom, contains o­nly a bed and wardrobe. The other, the study, houses a table, chair and bookshelf. His appliances were just the bare necessities: a palm-leaf fan, a brown paper fan, a bamboo mosquito catcher, a little thermos-flask, a bottle of water, a radio-set given by Vietnamese nationals in Thailand, and a small electric fan – a gift from the Communist Party of Japan. A little brass bell used to hang o­n the door. In the stilt-house, Uncle Ho received top cadres, children and his close friends. He spent most of his time writing letters, revolutionary articles encouraging "good people, good deeds," and documents of great historical value o­n important political tasks such as his 1966 Call against US Imperialism, for National Salvation. Plants and trees were grown in the area around the stilt-house, as Uncle Ho was a poet with a great love for nature and pet animals. The garden is bordered with hibiscus, and the gate of climbing plants is typical of rural Vietnam. The front garden is decorated with little bushes of fragrant jasmines and eglantines, while at the rear is a stand of star-fruit trees from the country’s south. Spring sends the garden into a colourful riot of mangoes, white blossoms, and orchids. Uncle Ho regularly practiced martial arts and taichi with the guards in the garden, also the place where he o­nce conducted people singing the famous song Unity, like a real orchestra conductor. In front of the stilt-house is his fish-pond, teeming with fish that he fed with great care. He o­nly had to clap his hands and they came in shoals for food. The house clearly reveals his humility, his erudition and his love of simplicity and nature.
As late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong o­nce wrote: "It is not merely a landscape, but a way of life; it speaks of a priceless joy that the current civilisation seems deprived of, with its polluted mega-cities and cluttered high-rise apartments.
Today, visitors flock to the stilt-house to remember what kind of a man Uncle Ho was, and to celebrate his memory - a man of sophisticated intellect yet simple pleasures, of revolutionary ideas yet of peaceful disposition.

Bat Trang Village Festival

Time: From the 14th to the 16th day of the second lunar month
Place; Bat Trang Communal House, Bat Trang Commune, Gia Lam District, Hanoi.
Objects of worship:     Han Cao To and Lu Hau, Cai O Minh Chinh Tu Royal Highest, top-ranking general Phan, Ho Quoc Genie, Bach Ma Genie.
Characteristics:            Water procession, ancestral tablet washing, contest of composing ca tru song to sing o­n the worshipping ceremony. 
Bat Trang Village is famous for pottery. The village is located near the bank of the river, includes sacred communal house, pagoda, temple, shrine. The village festival involves water procession, ancestral tablet washing, a procession of ancestral tablet to the communal house to worship. The offering to the village's tutelary god is a barbecued young fat buffalo. They put the whole buffalo o­n the large table with six big feasts and four trays of steamed glutinous rice. After worshipping, the offerings are shared out for every family.

Thu Phuong Hair Salon

Address: 179B - 181 Lê Duan - Ha Noi Tel: 84 4 9 421 980 E-mail:beautysalon@thuphuong.com.vn

Caritta Beauty Salon

Address: 7A1 Tran Nguyen Han - Hoan Kiem dist - Ha Noi Tel:(04) 934 9494 * 0913 526 565

Thu Van Beauty Salons

Address: 54-2 Dong Cac - Dong Da - Ha Noi * 436 Hoang Lien str, Lao Cai province Tel:04 8516 282 * 0913 522 218 * 020 840 669

Hong Kong Beauty Salon

Address: 54 Cua Bac Str * 20 Duong Thanh Str * 32 Hang Ga Str, Hanoi Website:www.thammyhongkong.com Tel: 7160 837 * 0913 236 881 * 8 246 852 * 0913 204 599 * 9 232 2

Ngoc Anh Make Up

Address : 6 Hang Chuoi, Hai Ba Trung, Ha Noi Website:www.ngocanhmakeup.com Tel:(04) 9 714 963 * 0912 266 857

Phuong Uyen Beauty Salon

Address: 1- Tran Xuan Soan- Ha Noi 16- Hoang Quy-Le Chan-Hai Phong. Tel: 04 978 2241 - 031.700 699

Thac Bac Group Vietnam

Address: First Floor Trang Tien Plaza, 24 Hai Ba Trung, Ha Noi - Diamon Plaza, 34 Le Duan No.1  dist, Ho Chi Minh city. Tel:04.936 1222 -08.827 4303

List hospitals in Ha Noi

Hoan Kiem Lake, or the Lake of the Restored Sword, is located directly in the centre of Hanoi. The name is derived from a legend involving Emperor Le Thai To, in which he came across a giant tortoise while cruising o­n the lake. The tortoise took his sword that had secured victory against the Chinese aggressors of the Minh Dynasty. The emperor named the lake after this episode.
Every morning, the surrounding park fills with locals who arrive to exercise and play badminton. By the way, there still are a few tortoises who call this area home. Hoan Kiem was already considered the most beautiful lake in Hanoi when Ngoc Son Temple was built o­n a small island during the 19th century. Saint Van Xuong, considered o­ne of the brightest stars of Vietnam's literature and intellectual circles, was worshipped here. National hero Tran Hung Dao was also worshipped after he lad the Vietnamese people to victory over both Mongolian and Chinese invaders.   View Larger
The temple as it is seen today is the result of renovations made by Nguyen Van Sieu in 1864. A great Hanoian writer, sieu had a large pen-shaped tower built at the entrance of the temple. o­n the upper section of the tower are three Chinese characters: ta thanh thien, which means that to write o­n the blue sky is to imply the height of a genuine and righteous person's determination and will.
	Also at the entrance are: a dai nghien, or ink stand, carved from stone and resembling a peach, which is placed o­n the back of three frogs o­n top of the gate to the temple; and The Huc, or the place where the first rays of morning sunshine touch. On the way to the temple are several cau doi, parallel sentence boards, placed o­n the wall. cau doi were part of traditional word puzzles played by Hanoi's intellectual class

Ngoc Ha Temple was named after an old village, Ngoc Ha camp, o­ne of 13 camp in the West of Thang Long (the old capital of Vietnam) formed in Ly Dynasty "Huyen Thien Hac De" deity is worshipped in this temple. Ngoc ha Temple was built to satisfy the customary religious need of worshipping a village deity and also a place for community meeting.
Until now no documents concerning the temple's establishment have been found. However, people in the village know that the temple was built a long time ago and as the original structure was destroyed, the present is a replacement. The date written o­n the temple shows that it was restored in the 10th Thanh Thai Year (1899). By investigating relics and records kept in the temple, it is estimated that the temple was built at the end of Le Dynasty and be repaired many times in Nguyen Dynasty.
Today, we still can see its general architectural structure with ancient features such as gables, roof edges which were in the form of flying dragons and clouds. Many items of altar decoration of great artistic value are kept carefully in the temple. Besides being an architectural heritage, Ngoc Ha temple is also a historical site of anti-French activities in the late 19th century, even the August 1945 revolution and resistance war against the French from 1946 to 1954.

The Co Loa Festival is held annually from the 6th to the 16th of the 1st month of lunar calendar. It takes place in the pagoda that honours An Duong Vuong in Co Loa Commune, Dong Anh District, Hanoi City. On the 6th day of Tet, the literature procession is preceded by a flag that symbolizes the 5 elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), a musical company, and a sacrifice. The Literature Stand set at the Imperial Court's Sedan Chair is shaded by a parasol. In the courtyard, o­ne can see many colorful festival flags and Dai Flags (great o­nes) fluttering in the wind.On either side of the temple gates are a couple of red horses and white horses with colorful saddles. Preceded by the literature procession is a sacrificial ceremony that lasts until 12 PM. After this ceremony, there is the god procession of 12 villages. Besides these processions, there are many activities such as swinging, rice cooking, singing Vietnamese popular opera and other events. On the 16th day of the first lunar month, the festival is closed with a thanksgiving ceremony.

 

Bat Trang and other cottage industry villages

Separated from the Hanoi downtown by a bridge over the Red River and 15km dike in between green rice paddies and old villages, Bat Trang is worth a half-day visit not only for its wellknown cottage industry but also for the poetic surroundings. According to historical records, the villagers have featured some kinds of excellent ceramic for domestic use and export since 15th century. From time to time, the Vietnamese overseas people and diplomatic corps have found their products – valuable antiques now - not only in neighbouring countries like China, Korea, Cambodia but in far states including Egypt, France and Portugal. The  masters of Bat Trang now are not only supplying a big deal of porcelain for Vietnam but receive numerous orders from Japan, France and USA and are proceeding to recover traditional samples that somewhat have been lost during the war time. Stop-off at the village is an interesting mixture between watching the real production of ceramics and walking around for some light but fine and sophisticated porcelain. You can find in a factory the workmen mixing clay or dipping burnt vases into glaze to highlight their crackled lines, the painting masters, usually young girls with dexterous hands drawing on raw terracotta before they are heated at 900oC to 1,700oC ovens, taking inspiring pictures of coal-dust bakes pasted on the village's walls. Daily life of the village with a small exciting market and the wharf at the Red River where the products shipped are also very fascinating. You should go with a local guide to discover the family factories behind the shops in front, as it may not easy to communicate with the villagers who speak no English. If Bat Trang say they are proud that about 1,000 households live by traditional job, other cottage industry villages surrounding Hanoi would be shy a bit. Dong Ky village – 30km northeast of Hanoi, has only hundreds of families specialized in handmade wooden furniture with mother-of-pearl and marble inlay. Whilst local people come here for ordering cupboards, tables and wardrobes by their designs or in catalogues' styles, you would be interested in wooden statues or sophisticated utensils made of ebony, redwood, rosewood and pinewood. Another village 14 km West of Hanoi called Van Phuc is famous for the traditional silk and you can find here many families using motor looms weaving silk or washing them after completed. Villagers from Le Mat, 08 km northeast of Hanoi, catch and breed snakes for foods and wine. Serpents can be found hereabout in compounds around the house, in readiness to export or to be dipped in snake wine or traditional medicine. Different kinds of other snakes are to be cooked and served to the people mainly coming from Hanoi, especially men. In Hanoi old quarter sometimes you can also buy medicines made from Le Mat snakes. Dong Ho village along the Duong river in nearby Ha Bac province produces traditional woodblock prints. In the old time, a picture printed that way is a must to decorate a Vietnamese house in springtime of "Tet" – the Lunar New Year. Some families in the village now change to make paper articles to burn at the Vietnam's ancestral anniversaries to send "utensils" and "money" from the alive people to their dearest dead relatives, with a hope that those things will be assisting the dead souls to "survive" well in the Hell. As the villagers' job is somewhat seasonal, a visit to Dong Ho should be combined with a sightseeing to the large But Thap pagoda nearby, which was restored in 17th century with impressive antique statues and stone-carved balconies and towers. To the South of Hanoi there are a few interesting sights within a day-tour. If you love a visit to see magnificent limestone ranges edging a poetic river, come to the Perfume Pagoda or to Tam Coc. The trip to Tam Coc is to combined with visits to Bich Dong pagoda nearby and to the two temples which are remains of an ancient city called Hoa Lu, all belong to Ninh Binh province. Also in Ninh Binh you can visit Cuc Phuong, one of the few national parks in Vietnam. To the North of Hanoi is Tam Dao, an old French hill station with beautiful landscape from a height and to the West is a combination of several Buddhist temples, of which Thay and Tay Phuong Pagoda are most sightworthy. Please see details of them hereunder.