Another area where you catch a nostalgic atmosphere is the Old Quarter on Hoan Kiem District, Hang Chieu Street. The mazelike streets feature countless shophouses with narrow frontage but deceiving depth. (The buildings were built this way because shops were taxed by the width of the storefront.)

Monuments and museums around the lake area include the Museum of the Revolution, Museum of History, the Opera House and St. Joseph’s Cathedral. The first museum houses photographs chronicling Vietnam’s fight to free herself from French colonialism, Japanese fascism and American imperialism – it’s been quite a struggle. The Opera House on Tran Tien Street is the centerpiece of French architecture in Hanoi. This was the place where Vietminh troops announced the triumph of the August Revolution in 1945. Nowadays, this 400-seat, three-tier theater hosts national celebrations, ballets, symphonies, operas and concerts.

If temples are your thing, we suggest you take a one-day tour to the Perfume Pagoda, 60km south of Hanoi. This Buddhist site, or Chua Huong, has a collection of carved limestone shrines on a hilltop. The cavern inside the hill enshrines venerated gilded Buddha and Bodhisattvas statues. Here, thousands of pilgrims come to pray to Quan Am, the goddess of mercy and compassion. The trip to the temple involves taking a ferry down the flooded valley and a walk on a stone path up to the hill.

Attractions

Hoan Kiem Lake

Right in the middle of the city of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake, or locally known as bo ho that means ‘the shore of the lake’, is more than the place for morning exercises, leisure and recreation activities. It is the heart and the beats of the city – thousands of local folks gather together on the Liberation Day and the photographers snap photos of brides and grooms during the wedding season.

The lake has the legend way back in the mid-15th century when Emperor Ly Thai (Le Loi) got a magical sword from heaven to fight against the Chinese, the Minh aggressors, out of Vietnam. After that one day when he was out sailing in the lake, a giant golden tortoise suddenly grabbed the sword and disappeared into the water. The lake is also known as ‘Ho Hoan Kiem’, the Lake of the Restored Sword, because it is believed the sword was taken to its original divine owners.

On an islet in the middle of the lake towards its south stands the Tortoise Tower or the Thap Rua on the top of which a red star is often held as an emblem of Hanoi.

Ngoc Son Temple

Right up north of Hoan Kiem Lake is Ngoc Son (Jade Mountain) Temple. It was built in the 18th century as a dedication to a scholar Van Xuong, General Tran Hung Dao, who fended off the Mongols in the 13th century.

The present building of the temple is renovated in 1864 by Nguyen Van Sieu, a famous Hanoi writer. He also had a tall pen-shaped tower of five storeys erected at the entrance of the temple. On the gate of the temple, there are also several parallel sentences called cau doi, which were part of traditional word puzzles played among the intellectuals.

On the east side of the temple is the 19th century bright red wooden Huc (Rising Sun) Bridge, a romantic gateway to the temple.

One Pillar Pagoda

The original motive to build the famous One Pillare Pagoda (Chua Mot Cot) stemmed from the celestial dream of the Emperor Ly Thai Tong, reigning from 1028 to 1054. The heirless emperor dreamt that he had met Quan The Am Bo Tat (Goddess of Mercy), who handed him a male child while she seated in the middle of a lotus flower. After that, the emperor married with a young peasant girl who bore him a son. The One Pillar Pagoda was then constructed as a gratitude to the goddess in 1049.

The pagoda bears a resemblance of a lotus blossom, built as a wooden shrine on a single stone pillar of 1.25m in diameter. It was reconstructed after being destroyed by the French in 1954. The child is well respected by the locals and located near Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, another revered monument.