The apartment has 119 m2, including:

3 bedrooms

A living room

A dinning room

A kitchen room

2 WCs

Wooden floor

Fully furnished: heater, washing machine, 5 air conditioners, cabinet, sofa,etc..

Facilities: wide balcony, airy rooms, way looking down the fountain…

Price: $700/month.

Following some images of the apartment:



















For more details, please contact to us as below:

Mobile: 0967849961
Email: luxuryapartmenthiland@gmail.com
Skype: Đào Dandelion

Located in Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi Ly Quoc Su Street starts from the intersection of Hang Bong and Hang Manh Streets and runs south to Nha Tho Street. 

Previously, it was part of Tien Thi Village in Thuan My Commune, Tho Xuong District and was called Rue Lamblo during the time of French colonialism. 

For centuries, the 250m long Ly Quoc Su Street has always been one of the most bustling and animated streets in the capital of Hanoi. Anyone strolling on the street shares a common feeling towards it: the past and the present, the old and the new harmonize to create the unique features. 

According to historical records, Ly Quoc Su means “The teacher of the court under the Ly Dynasty”. This title went to Nguyen Chi Thanh (1066-1141) who lived in Diem Xa Village of Gia Vien District (present-day Ninh Binh Province). He followed Buddhism and was known as Buddhist Monk Minh Khong. In 1136, he cured King Ly Than Tong of a disease that many famous doctors failed to do. For his unyielding virtue and talent, he was given the title “Ly Quoc Su”. King Ly Than Tong also provided him with a serene residential quarter near Bao Thien Pagoda, now Ly Quoc Su Pagoda on Ly Quoc Su Street, where he led a religious life. Ly Quoc Su died in August in Tan Dau Year (the Year of the Rooster - 1141). 

Ly Quoc Su Pagoda now preserves a stele with inscriptions made by famous Doctor Le Dinh Duyen in the 8th Tu Duc Year that tells about the pagoda’s great restoration. In addition, the Pagoda has many statues of the sculptural style of the Le Dynasty and a bell named “Bao Thap tu chung” (bell of Bao Thap Temple) which was cast in the Year of the Pig (1815) in the Gia Long Dynasty. 

The Street also boasts the ancient temple of Phu Ung at No.25 which was built by Phu Ung villagers in the 19th century to worship famous general Pham Ngu Lao.Together with the development of other streets inHanoi , Ly Quoc Su Street has seen great changes as well. Shops have mushroomed on the Street, selling various products, from European jewellery, costume, perfumes and decorative lamps to traditional Vietnamese items, such as brocades, embroideries, statues, etc. All attract much attention from foreign tourists.

The Street is also known as a “must-to-visit” cuisine address of both locals and foreigners with prestigious restaurants where delicious dishes are always available, such as Quangdong roasted duck, pizzas, ribs, Ly Quoc Su pho (rice noodle soup), Mrs. My porridge, cakes, fruits mixed with salt, sugar and fresh chilli, etc.

According to a legend, famous poetess Ho Xuan Huong (in the 18th century) owned a tea stall on the street where men of letters of the land of Ha Thanh (present-day Hanoi ) socialized. 

Located in the middle of Ly Quoc Su Street is Sao Viet Vistar Company Ltd., the sole representative in Vietnam of many sound, light and musical instrument companies from Japan, the US and Germany, which was established 20 years ago. 

With its historical and cultural values, Ly Quoc Su Street has become an indispensable part of Hanoi and an interesting destination for foreign tourists./.

Vietnam Pictorial

Hang Thiec Street is a craft street of tinsmiths which has existed for a long time in the Old Quarter. In the past it was in Yen Noi Village, Tien Tuc Commune of Tho Xuong District (present-day Hang Gai Ward of Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi). 

Hang Thiec Street

Most of the houses in this street are old and have small garrets which make the house look like “overlapping match boxes”. Hang Thiec Street is 136m long, stretching from Thuoc Bac Street to Hang Non Street. It is the place where tinsmiths make different items, such as oil lamps, candle stands, incense burners, tea pots, tea-set trays and tips of conical hats. 

After a period of development the craft also turned out other products from sheet metal, hence the street was called Rue des Ferblanties by the French.

Over the years Hang Thiec Street has virtually remained unchanged, with the craft of making tin products still being kept, turning out various kinds of utensils for daily use. 

On the occasion of Mid-Autumn Festival the Street is busier because the craftsmen begin to use pieces of tin to make children’s toys, such as cars, trains, ships, planes, peach-shaped lanterns with a fairy inside, butterfly-shaped lanterns and a rabbit beating a drum. 

We visited the family of Nguyen Phu Dinh, one of the families still following the craft of their forefathers, on Hang Thiec Street. His two sons have inherited their father’s skills and become artisans with golden hands. 

Dinh said that payment for making tin products is low, so people who open shops on Hang Thiec Street are only engaged in trading. They receive orders for the products and have the orders filled by the tinsmiths in the rural areas.

When plastic utensils developed, Dinh and other craftsmen on Hang Thiec Street were concerned that the craft could be lost. Through many ups and downs now there are demands for tin products on the market. We saw many pails, buckets, basins and sinks made of corrugated steel piled in the shops and were told that these products would be supplied to different cities and provinces throughout the country.In the book “Old Streets of Hanoi”, American writer Lady Borton described the sound on Hang Thiec Street: “…

The roaring sounds of hammers striking against the metal resound from early morning to late at night. Vietnamese craftsmen have preserved their traditional craft until today…” 

Today coming to Hang Thiec Street, we clearly see that the essential needs and useful household utensils have a good impact on the preservation and development of the long-lasting traditional craft. 

Although the number of people who follow their forefathers’ crafts have become fewer and fewer, they have helped maintain the vitality of the craft streets in Hanoi and preserve its old cultural features, creating the typical characteristics of the thousand-year-old Thang Long./.

Vietnam Pictorial

A search for “Hang Manh” unsurprisingly brings up a raft of sites which mention the well-known bun cha joint at number 1. Well-known it may be, but good value it is no more: the dish under-delivers on flavour and it’s seriously over-priced compared to other bun cha places. Thankfully, there’s a more to Hang Manh than bun cha.

From bamboo blind to music street.

Manh are roller blinds made of thin strips of bamboo and the traditional wares of this street. Now they’re in short supply, although still available at a couple of places, and vinyl flooring seems to have taken over as the household item of choice — just so you know.

What makes Hang Manh a particularly interesting street to visit nowadays are the music shops. Think not of electric guitars and digital drum kits, but of gong bans, k’long puts and khen h’mong. Yes, Hang Manh is the place to go for traditional handmade instruments.

Look out for Gizmo.

Even if you’re not musically inclined the shops are really interesting and beautiful places to browse, with some great gift options available. How about a frog block for the kids? In ancient times, larger versions of this instrument were used to communicate information over long distances; now they’re just great for annoying parents.

Also available as a fish.

Or maybe a lute or mandolin are more your style? Either to hang on a wall or bring out at parties or fireside gatherings. The bamboo xylophones are particularly beautiful but a bit too large for most rucksacks — still, smaller percussive instruments are available too, as well as a vast array of gongs (anyone can play one of those).

Shops worth a look are Manh Cuong at 1B, a narrow but well-laid out store, and Thai Khue at 1A, a few doors down and next to the bun cha place. Thai Khue has a more chaotic set-up than Manh Cuong but it cries out to be explored, and the proprietress is often outside putting the finishing touches to an instrument — last time I was there it was a tambourine. Further south on the street are a couple of shops selling larger instruments, including xylophones.

A bit too big for the average rucksack.

Next door to Manh Cuong is a shop selling antiques. Some of the items wouldn’t be out of place in the Museum of History or the Fine Arts Museum — but might not suit your London pad. Still, it’s a unique style and an interesting browse.

A unique style of interior decorating.

Otherwise Hang Manh boasts just the usual souvenir shops, a couple of hotels and a branch of Gecko restaurant, which makes a good food or drink stop if you’re in the area and not up for street food. Combine a visit here with a stop at Yen Thai Street and Hang Gai (Silk) Street.

Hang Quat is one of the most colourful streets in Old Quarter and its time for coverage in our 36 streets series has now finally come.

Red and yellow are dominant colours...

Quat means fans, and that is of course what was traditionally made on this street, be they from bamboo, paper or palm leaves. Villagers set up shop in the street and the fans they made were named after their villages and sold to Hanoians and visitors. During the French occupation, the street was named Rue des Eventails (street of fans) — it was only named Hang Quat street in 1945, after the August Revolution.

... but other colours are everywhere

Fans are no longer made here, having been replaced by items for worshipping. Running west from Luong Van Can Street (toy street), Hang Quat is only about 200 metres long but is packed with shops selling an array of brightly coloured items — including Buddhist statues, flags and lamps — as well as less gaudy but just as intricate wooden shrines.
These items are used for at-home worshipping – most homes and businesses have a shrine at which householders and workers will worship their ancestors with offerings of fruit, incense and other items, and also for larger celebrations and festivals.

Ancestor shrine

It’s also the place to go for hand-crafted wooden seals in all shapes and sizes.

I'm not sure on the connection between stamps and shrines but they make a decent souvenir

As well as the shops, Hang Quat has other points of interest. Check out the temple near the junction with Hang Hom and the memorial to soldiers from the ward (Hang Gai ward) near Luong Van Can. It’s also home to Green Mango restaurant, a fine-dining restaurant serving modern Asian cuisine.

The gates are often locked

The alley that runs off Hang Quat to the south, parallel to Luong Van Can, is a good spot to stop off for a delicious bowl of hoa qua (fruit with condensed milk and coconut milk) and it also has a couple of interesting souvenir shops as well as further stamp shops.

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.

Hàng Giầy is right in the centre of Old Quarter: running from Luong Ngoc Quyen to Hang Chieu. Giầy means shoes — if it were giay it would be paper, which is why I’ve added the tones — but nowadays there are very few shoes on sale along its stretch.

Street sponsored by Wrigley's

There may not be shoes, but pretty much everything else is available. The top two-thirds of the street are given over to shops selling primarily toys, snacks, preserved fruits and alcohol: often all in one store. The road isn’t narrow, but with the wares spilling out onto the street and motorbikes parked erratically — either delivering or shopping — it’s not the easiest of streets to navigate. It’s worth the effort though, as it’s a hive of local activity and a good destination to stock up oncrisps and biscuits for the train to Sapa (along with Hang Buom, which it crosses).

Fill your backpack

The bottom third of the street is a bit more eclectic, yet more spacious and ordered. Tourist services start to appear, such as Ethnic Travel, and eating and drinking spots are sprinkled here. There are also some local “boutique” fashion stores… so they may not appeal to Western tastes (nor fit).

By day a shop, by night a restaurant

This part of Hang Giay is a good place to go in the evening as well. The shops just north of the junction with Hang Buom, opposite Bach Ma Temple, close and the space turns itself over to a street restaurant. The menu’s quite wide ranging — and in English — and although prices are a little inflated, it’s still relatively cheap grub. There’s also a bittet place at number 22 and pho is readily available (along with vodka Hanoi, but that’s a night I don’t want to remember).

Also look out for Nha Hang Thu Huyen at 36-38, opposite what used to be home to Hair of the Dog but is now a bar called Monkey and Snake. It always seems to be busy and is open late too.

Try the weasel

Finally, Hang Giay is the place to go for coffee. A number of shop/cafes dot the bottom half, selling roasted coffee beans as well as freshly brewed cups of the strong beverage. Check out Cafe Pho Co (Old Quarter Cafe) at number 34, Hue Cafe at 26, Vi Lan Cafe next door and, further up Cafe Phuc Xuong. You’ll smell them before you see them.

Both Hàng Hòm and Hàng Mành turn into Hà Nội’s luxury shopping street, Hàng Gai, known to foreigners as Silk Street. In the fifteenth century this street sold rope and jute products, but from the nineteenth century, wood block printing came to Hàng Gai

In 1459, Lục Như Học went to China and learned woodblock printing. He came back and taught his craft to his native village (in Hải Dương Province), where a communal house was set up honouring him as the founder of woodblock printing. There is still in existence a book in demotic Vietnamese script, Truyền Kỳ Mạn Lục, printed in 1680.

When woodblock printing came to Hàng Gai in the nineteenth century, at first the books printed here were mostly traditional medical treaties and folk stories as well as a few “popular” works such as the Confucian Classics, The Tale of Kiều and A Woman Baccalaureate Phan Trần.

The Ngô Tử Hạ Printing House at No. 101 (now selling baby clothes) was a print shop extending to Hàng HànhStreet. Some thick history books required an entire room to hold the wooden engraving blocks. Houses that stored the wood blocks later became known as publishers.

Books were sold to itinerate vendors, mostly women peasants, who between harvest and planting, went around peddling farm products as well as buying up old books from families living in the countryside. These old books would be exchanged for new books in Hàng Gai Street, put into baskets dangling from shoulder poles and carried back to rural markets to sell – primitive distribution.

When the French arrived, the house at No. 80-82 (now a souvenir shop and the Green Palm Gallery) became the first French Embassy in Hà Nội. When the Nguyễn Dynasty in Huế appointed a mandarin, Nguyễn Trọng Hợp, as the Governor of the North, he set up headquarters at No. 79 and lived at No. 83 (now a jewelery shop), opposite the Residence de France. It was the French ambassador who first brought rickshaws to Hà Nội from Japan. From soldiers to mandarins, and of course, the French, everyone traveled by rickshaw, in those days pulled by a man on foot.

An old man sitting in front of the jewelery shop at No. 83 says the small temple next door under a fig tree is three hundred years old and writes its name: Đình Cổ Vũ. The “temple” was the communal house (đình) of Cổ Vũ Village at the back of which was a print shop. Slowly, more shops began to appear: stationery shops, hat shops, an optician. For a time during the Resistance against the French, they controlled the odd numbered side of the street; the Vietnamese, the even numbered side.

In the past, at the Mid-Autumn Children’s Festival, the street was a child’s delight, hung with colorful lanterns in the shape of lion heads, rabbits, toads, fish and dragons.

These days, Hàng Gai is a silk shopper’s paradise: shimmering scarves and stoles, finely tailored men’s and women’s clothes, heavily embroidered and sequined evening gowns, handbags, silk bed throws, cushion covers. Choose your silk – thick nubbly raw silk, heavy or fine – in a kaleidoscope of deep, rick colors or a wide selection of subtle shades. If it’s not hanging on a rack, it will be tailored to your personal measurements and requirements in twenty four to forty-eight hours (best to have Western tailoring copied).

From Hàng Gai, it is only a few steps along Lương Văn Can (to the right, south) to Hoàn Kiếm and a rewarding cup of tea, coffee or ice cream at Thủy Tạ, overlooking the lake.

By Carol Howland

Silk Street (Phố Hàng Đào) is a fashionable street in the old quarter of the capital city. Literally Phố Hàng Đào means: street where red-dyed fabrics are sold. As early as the 14th-15th centuries, villagers – mostly from Đan Loan (in Hải Dương Province) – settled there, forming the guild of Đại Lợi. At number 90-A stone stele can still be found, noting that in 1706 the edifice was built as a communal house in honor of the tutelary god of the village and patron saint of dyers.

Silk Street, as indicated in the 15th century Treatise on Geography (Dư địa chí) by Nguyễn Trãi, was part of a dyke separating Lake Thái Cực (Great Primary Principle), which is now completely dry, from the Lake of the Restored Sword (Hoàn Kiếm). The two lakes used to communicate with each other through a canal which lay on the site of the present Street of the Wooden Bridge (Phố Cầu Gỗ) thus called in memory of the bridge which spanned it.

In his Collection Written on Rainy Days (Vũ Trung Tùy Bút), Phạm Đình Hổ (18th century) left us vivid descriptions of scenes in Silk Street and Jewelers’ Street where the wealth, corruption and fraud of a troubled period could be seen. French attacks in 1873 and 1882 reduced the prosperity of Silk Street, which was eventually revived toward the end of the century. 

The face of Silk Street has changed more than once in recent times. At the beginning of the century, its traditional features were still intact: trading in silk and silk fabrics practiced by families from generation to generation (the craft of dyeing having moved elsewhere, e.g. to the Street of the Wooden Bridge); the reputation of its scholars and mandarins; the beauty of its young women, elegant and skilful in commerce, whose plentiful dowries attracted graduates of the newly opened French university.

On both sides of a badly graveled road, about a hundred shops housed in narrow, low-roofed houses jostled each other in picturesque disorder. There was no pavement. Each shop was made up of two compartments: the outer one was fitted with a small glass-window displaying rows of buttons and the like behind which a woman, young or middle-aged, had the job of touting passing customers, many of whom were from the countryside; the inner compartment featured a plank-bed, on which sat the owner of the shop or her daughter, surrounded by glass cases filled with rolls of brocade (gấm), flowered satin (vóc) and silk gauze. Trading in raw silk (tơ sống) was also a local specialty. Much haggling usually accompanied the business done, for as a rule exorbitant prices were asked to begin with.

Each lunar month, on the 1st, 6th, 16th, 21st and 26th days, great animation came to Silk Street. People from weavers’ villages brought their products: gauze (the) of Cả and La Khê, silk-floos (đũi) of Đại Mỗ, satin (lĩnh) of Bưởi. They also came to buy raw silk. They gave orders to dyers from Chợ Dầu (Đình Bảng) from areas bordering West Lake, from Bưởi, from Dyers’ Street (Hàng Bông Nhuộm) and from Wooden Bridge Street.

After the end of the First World War, Silk Street experienced a measure of modernization. Indians coming from the five French trading-posts in India opened shops selling cotton fabrics distributed by French companies (Dumarest, Denis Frères).

Shops selling Vietnamese silks decreased in number. Their fronts were arranged like those kept by Indians: a wide glass-window, a counter and a signboard lettered in the Romanized vernacular of French instead of a curtain, on which the name of the shop was traced in Chinese characters.

The first haberdashery appeared is 1917. Toward the 1930’s Silk Street was dominated by linen-drapers’ shops selling also fancy goods from Paris: perfumes, cosmetics, hats, neckerchiefs, handkerchiefs, and ties.

For several decades following the liberation of Hà Nội which was occupied by French troops from 1946 to 1954, Silk Street’s activities were muted, private trade not being encouraged.

Starting from the mid-1980, with the adoption of a market economy, there has been a spectacular revival, with a mushrooming of watch-maker’s shops, haberdasheries, shops selling ready-to wear garments…and concrete buildings which threaten to disfigure the quarter.

Strange to say, it was in this commercial quarter that traditions of patriotism and culture blossomed. It was at houses numbers 10 and 63 that the licentiate Lương Văn Can (later exiled to the prison island of Poulo Condor) and his scholar friends opened around 1907 the “School of the Northern Capital Upholding the Just Cause” (Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục) which started the struggle against the colonial administration. His son Lương Ngọc Quyến was to be killed in the course of a military rebellion against the French in Thái Nguyên in 1917.

By Hữu Ngọc

By the mid-eighteenth century, Hàng Buồm, had become almost a self-contained community of Chinese from Canton selling mostly agriculture products, rice and sugar as well as fruits imported from China. Among those imports was opium on behalf of the French Opium Monopoly. Following the Treaty of Ports, the British foisted Indian opium onto the Chinese market. The Manchu authorities protested at the British import of Indian opium – opium had been prohibited in China for many centuries although there was a thriving black market – first in 1840 by dumping chests of imported Indian opium into the harbor, igniting the Opium Wars, then by exporting some of the unwanted evil on to Hà Nội.

Hàng Buồm Street in early 20th century

Hàng Buồm became an infamous good-time street of opium dens, bars, restaurants, and theatres and later, cinemas. Little Sầm Công Alley, off Hàng Buồm (to the left), was a notorious red light district of brothels, two carved wooden peaches indicating brothels, hanging over many doors. The saying went: “Hàng Buồm is a place of drunkenness – drunk in the morning, drunk in the afternoon, drunk in the evening, drunk all the time. “Reminiscent of its colorful past, one building facing Le Maquis Bar calls itself “The Cheeky Quarter.” Nestled amongst beauty and nail salons, tattoo and massage parlors, the Red Mask and Hà Nội Dramatic Theatre look as though they have died and passed on. With the passage of time, the character of the street has changed – families sitting in front of their shops look remarkably wholesome.

Rather unexpectedly, Hàng Buồm is the location of one of Hà Nội’s oldest, most hallowed temples (corner of Hàng Buồm and Hàng Giấy), Bạch Mã (Temple of the White Horse), is considered to be Hà Nội’s Guardian Temple of the East, with its carved funeral palanquin (to carry the spirit of the horse) and stone guardians. Confusingly, the temple is also dedicated to the earth spirit, Long Đỗ (the Dragon’s Navel), who was also the spirit of Nùng Mount, located within the Citadel, where Long Đỗ lived. According to legend, the first Lý Emperor, Lý Thái Tổ, prayed at this pagoda in those days dedicated to Long Đỗ, for divine assistance in building the city’s ramparts. They kept crumbling – not too surprising when attempting to build earthen walls in the alluvial flood plain of a great river in monsoon climate. His prayers were answered when a white horse was the messenger of the spirit of Tô Lịch River. Where the white horse paused, temples have been built to guard the city: Bạch Mã in the East, Kim Liên in the South. Voi Phục in the West and Quán Thánh in the North.

Bach Ma Temple in Hàng Buồm Street, considered to be Hanoi's Guardian Temple of the East

Bạch Mã has been rebuilt several times and is in the process of being smartened up as I step through the red lacquered doors of the gate to the sound of sanding and traditional Vietnamese music. In the courtyard, men are rubbing down, and then reapplying red lacquer and gold paint to the parallel sentence panels attached to the pillars of the pagoda. To the left hangs a huge ceremonial drum, to the right a television set, presumably for the guardian. A Vietnamese-style rock garden in a pond dominates the right side of the courtyard; backed by a wall there a fish is being transformed into a fiery dragon, floating through clouds, alluding to the Confucian notion that through hard work an ordinary person can become extraordinary. Not only were dragons the dual symbol of power and the emperor, but according to the Việt creation myth, the Vietnamese believe that they are the descendants of a fairy and a sea dragon.

In an update to worship, pyramids of soft drinks stand on the altar to the jolly, life-sized white horse, kept company by two giant gilt lacquered cranes (hạc). The three Taoist Holy Mothers of Sky, Water and Earth watch from their glass case on the right. On the left is a shrine to Nam Hải Tứ Vị Thánh Nương, a Chinese queen of the thirteenth century, who with her child and nanny, threw themselves into the sea to avoid capture by the Mongolians. Since then, she has acted as the Protector of Sailors.

In the temple behind, huge china vases and two delightfully comical figures with pot bellies face one another. The owner of the nearby Ladybird Café explains that the old man with the big nose and the jutting chin is the people’s hero—deity—for Longevity and the other, who holds money in his hand, represents Prosperity. Another source suggests that because of their dark skins, they were captured Chàm. The Hindu-Buddhist-Islamic kingdoms of Champa to the south and Đại Việt were frequently in conflict during the Lý and Trần dynasties.

In the early days, a live buffalo was sacrificed in the temple to ensure a prosperous new year. More recently, a ceremony called “Beating the Buffalo” took place to signify the end of winter and the beginning of spring. An earthen buffalo was thrashed with as mulberry branch, then carried ceremonially to the imperial palace.

By Carol Howland

Hàng Bạc is one of Thăng Long’s oldest streets, dating from the 13th century. For centuries, it has been the center for gold, silver and money exchange, although it is now crowded with tourist cafes and craft shops.

People living in Hà Nội’s area first used metallurgical techniques as early as 3,000 years ago during the Đông Sơn Bronze Age.

In the reign of Lê Thánh Tông (1460-1497), the Minister of Interior, Lưu Xuân Tín, received imperial permission to bring metal workers from his village, Trấu Khê, and to set up a silver ingot factory at No. 58 Hàng Bạc (now a travel agent). At first they cast ingots, later coins. The Upper Tren Communal House at Nos. 50-58 served as a school for training apprentice silversmiths. The Lower Kim Ngon Communal House at Nos. 42-48, (still a community meeting room with a bust of Hồ Chí Minh), was the foundry where molten silver was poured into moulds.

Later, when merchants needed large amounts of money – and metal coins or bars were too heavy – an exchange of Hàng Bạc would be arranged. The gold and silver dealers of Hàng Bạc were therefore, the forerunners of bankers. Even today, the word for paper money is bạc, meaning “paper silver” and occasionally, the jewelers of Hàng Bạc still change money (dollars in bills preferably of large denomination).

In the eighteenth century, the street attracted jewelry designers from upper Định Công Village, south of Hà Nội. Three brothers, the patron spirits of jewelry marks in Việt Nam, learned their trade in China in the 6th century. A locked temple dedicated to them is tucked away at No. 84 Hàng Bồ Street, the western extension of Hàng Bạc (a friendly lady tells me to come back at 8 PM).

Hàng Bạc had its share of stories and eccentrics. Miss Bé Tí, who lived in Hàng Bạc, was always called “the little girl from Hàng Bạc”, although in reality she was a very fat lady. She runs a money brokerage, but people came from afar to see her “zoo”: a four-legged chicken, a pig with two mouths and a couple of deformed dwarves. Hàng Bạc was also the setting for a short story, Mèo Lửa, from Vũ trung tùy bút (Collection Written on Rainy Days) by Phạm Đình Hổ (1768-1839). In the story:

Hàng Bạc Street is famous for beautiful jewelry - Illustration photo The palanquin of a great mandarin’s wife made a noisy entry into Đông Lạc Guild. The palanquin, preceded and followed by a swarm of lackeys and guards, had blinds made of painted jackdaw’s wings. The entourage stopped in front of the goldsmith’s shop, the servants were ordered to negotiate to buy several dozen silver taels (a measure of weight in those days). Hardly was the haggling finished when the Lady, who remained in her palanquin, told an old servant to take ten tales to palace so that her husband could give his advice on the price. The goldsmith suspected nothing amiss in this. An instant later, without warning, the entire retinue, including the two carrier guards disappeared. At sundown, as the old servant had not brought back the ten taels of silver, the goldsmith went to the palanquin to reclaim his property. Upon opening the blinds, enthroned inside he found only a dazed old blind beggar woman in a red crepe tunic. Investigations into the matter were inconclusive. The old dilapidated palanquin was worth no more than a few coins.

The Golden Bell Theater at the corner of Hàng Bạc and Đinh Liệt (where it joins Tạ Hiền), was built in 1920 by a Chinese merchant for performances of cải lương (renovated opera) musical theatre, which employs elements, which employs elements of both Vietnamese traditional opera (tuồng) and folk opera (chèo). A relatively modern theatrical form first created in the South in the 19th century, the farcical over-drawn characters of cải lương make the plots very easy to follow without knowing a word of Vietnamese and the music, even to the Western ear, can be quite entrancing.

It was on the steps of this theater on January 14, 1937, during the war against the French that the Hà Nội Guards, a unit of the anti-French resistance force, swore “to fight to the death”. Their headquarters at No. 86 Hàng Bạc (now a craft shop), then and in the thirties, was the home of Chấn Hưng, the largest goldsmith shop on the street. Sadly, beneath the ornate crest and once elegant balconies, it is now difficult to tell which, the ochre or the rust-red, is the peeling paint and the façade.

Hà Nội Ancient Quarter Management Department in its Hà Nội 2010 Project is busy restoring old buildings. No. 47 Hàng Bạc and Nos. 97-99 (at the corner of Hà Tiên, opposite the Cải Lương Theater), are scheduled for the renovation./.

By Carol Howland