HOMECOTEL- BUY AND SALE HOUSE IN VIETNAMHang Ma Street
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Hàng Mã (Paper Offerings) Street has been one of Hanoi’s typically frenetic commercial areas since the medieval times. On the occasions of traditional festivities, the street becomes filled with sounds, colors and light, bearing the imprints of the spiritual life of Orientals.
Starting from the intersection of Hàng Đường Street and ending at Phùng Hưng Street, the 339m-long commercial street separated by Tô Lịch River.
The river has been filled up, thus joining the two villages. Now part of Hàng Mã Ward, near Sword Lake and Đồng Xuân Market, of Hoàn Kiếm District, it is one of Hà Nội’s 36 ancient streets. The street offers various commodities and is one of the favorite destinations of tourists, domestic and foreign as well.
Hàng Mã Street is also known for its tube and gable-roofed houses typical of Hà Nội. Tube houses were built long and thin with a storefront and the worshipping, producing and living space in the rear. Even in these tunnel-like houses, ancient Hanoians still managed to have some space for nature.
The gable-roofed house includes the main floor plus an attic which has either a small door or round windows overlooking the street. The house has inclining tiles and an eave overhanging the street. The gable-roofed house is simply decorated with a three-step staircase, attractive lines and a curved roof.
Inhabitants of Hàng Mã Street were the Tan Khai villagers who nowadays still earn a living by selling such paper decorations as paper flowers and lanterns as well as paper offerings including the Soil Genie hats and votive-paper gold.
Coming through the arch of Hanoi’s Old City Gate, the road straight ahead is Hang Chieu. A dozen or so shops have stayed reasonably true to the street’s original wares – Vietnamese grass tatami mats — and sell all manner of mats and rugs, such as welcome mats and room-sized wool effect numbers. Some would make practical souvenirs, but might not fit so well in your rucksack.
As well as mats and rugs, Hang Chieu is also the place to go for plastic and other synthetic items — come on, you know you want to. Piles of sellotape fill shop entrances, shopping bags hang from rafters and large balls of nylon string abound. Okay, so this may not be of great interest to tourists, but it came in rather useful when I needed 200 polystyrene food trays.
Continue along Hang Chieu and it turns into Hang Ma. “Ma” refers to the paper replicas of items that you’ll see people burning to send to those in the afterlife, such as money and household items.
Hang Ma is the place to go around festival times as it sells whatever’s relevant to that season: at the moment it’s the place to go for Halloween masks and polystyrene pumpkins – in limited supply — but before we know it it’ll be full of Christmas trees, Santa hats and decorations.
Even outside of festivals it’s a colourful street for a wander, full of bright red lanterns, balloons, tinsel, ribbons, cards and wrapping paper. There are also a few toy shops around too, including a shop full of cuddly toys near the junction with Hang Luoc. It’s like a one-stop present shop for kids — get the sellotape on Hang Chieu.
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