HANOI OLD QUARTER There’s an old Vietnamese saying, “Hanoi has thirtysix streets and guilds – Jam Street, Sugar Street, Salt Street…”. Inside a modern and dynamic city, there appears an antique quarter, the Hanoi’s Old Quarter – the represented eternal soul of the city. One of the reasons that Hanoi the capital city of Vietnam, has attracted so many tourists over the years is its Old Quarter (36 old streets and guilds). It is an area wellknown for the history, the architecture, the enormous amount and diversity of products and even the everyday life of its residents.
Trang 1HANOI OLD QUARTER
There’s an old Vietnamese saying, “Hanoi has thirty-six streets and guilds – Jam Street, Sugar Street, Salt Street…” Inside a modern and dynamic city, there appears an antique quarter, the Hanoi’s Old Quarter – the represented eternal soul
of the city One of the reasons that Hanoi - the capital city of Vietnam, has attracted
so many tourists over the years is its Old Quarter (36 old streets and guilds) It is
an area well-known for the history, the architecture, the enormous amount and diversity of products and even the everyday life of its residents
• Located :
Hanoi's old quarter lies between the Restore Sword lake to the south and the Long Bien bridge to the north The former city rampart, now called Tran Nhat Duat Street, marks its east border and the citadel wall on Ly Nam De street its west
The Old Quarter (consisting of 36 old streets inside) started as a snake and alligator-infested swamp It later evolved into a cluster of villages made up of houses on stilts, and was unified by Chinese administrators who built ramparts around their headquarters The area was named "Dominated Annam" or
"Protected South" by the Chinese
• History :
According to legend, the King began rebuilding the former Chinese palece, but the walls tumbled down While he pray to the local earth god, a while hourse emerged from the temple and galloped west The King decided to build his citadel walls along the trace of its hoof prints and declared the white horse the city’s guardian ( The While Horse Pagoda on Hang Buom street still pays homage to that guardian )
Trang 2Originally a group of workshop villages surrounding the royal palace, the Old Quarter has gradually transformed into craft cooperatives, or guilds and soon gained its reputation as the business trading areas of the Red River delta
In the past, as artisans moved to the capital city to do business, they gathered together in this area to share the resources As a result, many of the streets were named after the crafts sold at that individual street Pho Hang Bun (Vermicelli), Pho Hang Ma (Paper Product), Pho Hang Bac (Silver), etc are examples of the streets carrying the name of the products sold there
A majority of the street name here starts with “hang”, which means merchandise or shop The guild streets were name after their product or location For example, skilled silversmiths from Hai Hung province now occupy “Hang Bac” street one of the most ancient streets in all Vienam
Now, invite you to join the tour to explore the old quarter with us !
“HANOI OLD QUARTER TOUR”
8:00 A.M Go by walking, bike, or taxi to ĐồngXuân gate on HàngChiếu street,
at there tourists can have breakfast with noodles and snails , noodle and crab chowder
8:30 A.M Visit ĐồngXuân maketnear by there
9:00 A.M Walk to O Quan Chuong and take photo( this place is only save : everything belong to old gate)
9:30 A.M Then go to Whlie Hourse Pagoda (đền Bạch Mã )
10:15 A.M Through big streets to old house at 87th Mã Mây street and the ticket takes 10000 VND and tourist can drink at Nola coffee near by old house 11:00 A.M Visit Kim Ngan pagoda at 42-44 Hàng Bạc street -the oldest making metal pagoda in Hà Nội
12:00 A.M The lunch at Phat Loc gate with bún đậu mắm tôm and bún chả at the head of phất Lộc gate
Trang 312:45 P.M After lunch , tourist can relax at coffee shop at 60th Phat Loc gate -the place is decorated very nice
14:00 P.M Then go to Ngoc Son temple and Hoan Kiem lake
15:00 P.M If you want to see Water Puppet, you can buy tickets, Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre is located nearly Ngoc Son Temple
16:00 P.M shopping gifts for ralatives, eating Oc at Dinh Liet street or drink Bia Hoi at Luong Ngoc Quyen street
19:00 P.M Having dinner with Long Xao, Pho Xao at Nguyen Sieu Street, or Cha Ca specialty, you can eat it at Cha CaThang Long in 21-31 Duong Thanh 20:00 P.M Walking down the street if at the weekend tourist can go to night maket at hàng ngang ,hàng đào streets or have drink at coffee shop near by Hoan Kiem lake or drink
LET’S GO !
8:00 A.M Go by walking, bike, or taxi to Dong Xuan gate on Hàng Chiếu street, at there tourists can have breakfast with noodles and snails , noodle and crab chowder
8:30 A.M visit Dong Xuan maket near by there
Dong Xuan Market
As you can see, we are standing in a crowed place Many many people are there Nowhere else, it is Dong Xuan market
Dong Xuan market is at the West end of Hanoi Old Quarter, surrounded by Hang Khoai street and Cau Dong street If you keep walking down Hang Ngang street, you will reach the market after 4 blocks or just from 600 km Hoan Kiem lake It is not only largest trading center of Ha Noi, but also an attractive sight foreiners and Vietnamese Therefore, this name is popular to Vietnamese and tourist from everywhere
Trang 4Dong Xuan Market was build in 1804 by governor Nguyen Van Thanh in Nguyen dynasty On the night of July 14th, 1994, a fire has brought down the whole market, causing a damage of 300 billion VND The market you see today was recently built modeled after the architecture before the fire
Dong Xuan market is largest center for selling and buying in capital, so you can buy everything here This wholesale Market has thousands of stalls Formerly, Market was famous for variety of goods, but now, mainly sell some good such as: electronic devices, household equipments, clothing and other kind products
The Northern end of the market holds mainly eating venue, serving both day and night time There are alot of kinds food in here such as: “Bun Cha”, “Bun Rieu”
9:00 A.M walk to ô quan chưởng and take photo( this place is only save : every thing belong to old gate)
O QuanChuong (QuanChuong Gate)
O Quan Chuong or was called O Đong Ha, belongs to Hoan Kiem Distric, HN This is a 1 in 16 gateways in Thang Long
People usually say that Ha Noi had 5 gateways The name’s it remains to the present such as O CauGiay, O Cau Den, O Cho Dua, O Dong Mac and O Quan Chuong But actually ancient documents, in the middle 18th century, Ha Noi still had 16 gates Nowaday, Ha Noi has only a gate It is O Quan Chuong, be a vestige
to present
O Quan Chuong was built in the years Canh Hung (1749) It was reconstructed
in the years Gia Long (1817) and hold shape to nowaday
The early 20th century, after the occupation of Hanoi, the French had to tear down the old buildings around to extended neighborhood But only O QuanChuong, thanks to the struggles and perseverance of the people and Mr Cai, Dao Dang Chieu (1845-1916), this policy should not be done Because Mr Cai and
Trang 5people refused to sign the authorization process to break down the gate O QuanChuong, so that the French had been concessions
Nowaday, it is located on O Quan Chuong Street, the head of Hang Chieu Street and near the foot of the Chuong Duong bridge
Ô Quan Chưởng includes 2nd floor and are built by type of “vọng lâu” - one style architecture specific Nguyen dynasty The first floor have 3 doors The main door is in the middle, height and wide about 3 meters, extra door be at the 2 side main door, is 1,65 meters height and 2,5 meters wide Especially, the 3 doors designed by type of arches
The second floor have a “vọng lâu ” four roof, scaled the roof right at the main door Surrounded, balustrade has been decorated by hexagonal, rectangular, rosetted
Between on the roof of the main door and the gazebo is a rectangular frame, nearly 1 meter height and about 3 meters wide, with three embossed Chinese character "Dong Ha Mon" The main door to the left wall mounted with a stone tablet by the General of Ha Noi, Hoang Dieu, for 1881 recording ban placed guards not to harass the people through the gate every time
And why is the change of O Thanh Ha Gate? Thanh Ha had been changed to Quan Chuong Gate According to what was recorded in the genealogy of Dao in
1873, has a chancellor who was born Bac Ninh, had rebelled against Phap invaders, and caught in Gia Lam, The French took him to Ha Noi to behead and stigmatization the riverbank Cai river, in front of O Quan Chuong, and Mr Cai was guarded
The first night, Mr Cai heard the dog barking outside the river His soldiers checked and found has 2 boats near the stigmatization of the chancellor
The next day, the family’s chancellor met Mr Cai to negotiate and redeem the head of the chancellor Knowing this is an act to be done, but not to the crime with the above, Mr Cai was report with the superiors to request throw the head of the chancellor to keep hygiene in the residential area, and are approved
Trang 6That night, Mr Cai brought the head of the chacellor back to his family Tomorrow, Mr Cai ordered his soldier to take a soil wrapped in cloth and place in cages to throw the river Before throw it, shout loud to everyone in the bank can hear: "By order of the above, the head must fall!"
The stoty of the chacellor spread of Dong Xuan, from there, who went through the gate called O Quan Chuong, gradually the former name of Thanh Ha Gate was not mentioned again
Nowaday, this place became the location wedding photography for couples in love wants to return to the ancient memories This is a where are stop footer of peddlers
Over the historical vicissitudes and the weather change, Quan Chuong gate to restoration, repair and over again Therefore, the features ancient moss and old more or less extinct, then this place is still one of the "ancient imprint Hanoi"
9:30 A.M Then go to Whlie Hourse Pagoda (đềnBạchMã )
BạchMã (White Horse) Temple
Bạch Mã (White Horse) Temple is located at number 76 Hàng Buồm Street, Hoàn Kiếm District, HàNội
In the heart of the Old Quarter, the small Bach Ma Temple is said to be the oldest temple in the city and was a short walk away from where I was staying The temple, built in the 9th century, worships Long Đỗ, the deity who protected the Thăng Long Royal Citadel In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ king moved the citadel from Hoa Lư (NinhBình) to Thăng Long and wanted to expand it The king asked the troops to build the citadel higher, but whenever they did that, the citadel collapsed The king asked people for the reason and knew that this place was awe-inspiringly powerful earlier Then he ordered to make offerings At that night, in his dream, he met the deity who congratulated and told the king to follow the traces of horse hooves to build the citadel Then the king saw a white horse galloping at full speed and then disappeared On the next day, the king saw the traces of horse hooves on the ground in a circle and instructed the troops to follow them for the construction
Trang 7The citadel was built very firm To express the gratefulness to the deity, the king asked for carving a white horse for worshiping and conferred the title of “Thăng Long tutelary god” From that, the white horse has become a sacred symbol and Bạch Mã temple (or white horse temple) has been known from that
Bạch Mã Temple is a unique architectural construction and one of the four district gate temples of ancient Thăng Long The district gates and their temples are located at the four compass points of the city: Quán Thánh Temple to the north, Bạch Mã Temple in the east, Kim Liên Communal House and temple in the south, and Voi Phục (kneeling elephant) Temple to the west
Bạch Mã temple is a very nice architectural work which includes three-door temple gates, burning incense place and forbidden palaces It is a closed architectural work, making the temple become among rare and typical works of the Northern delta region
The temple now still keeps lots of old valuable relics such as stone steles, palanquin, cranes and pairs of toy earthen statue for worship
Every year, to honor Long Đỗ deity, the People’s Committee of HoànKiếm district holds BạchMã temple festival on lunar February 12 and 13 The event includes many offerings and cultural activities like ceremonial songs (catrù), Vietnamese popular opera (hátchèo), poem recitation and fencing
10:15 A.M Through big streets to old house at 87th MãMây street and the ticket takes 10000 VND and tourist can drink at Nola coffee near by old house
11:00 A.M Visit Kim Ngan Communal House at 42-44 HàngBạc street -the oldest making metal pagoda in HàNội
HANG BAC STREET
Trang 8When it comes to restaurant city money can not but mention the jeweler profession characterized ancient city of Hanoi Hang Bac, jewelry ancestral land of ancient Hanoi, the ancient City has 3 main jobs: casting Bullion, jewels and vocational exchange The population mostly came from the village of ChauKhai (Hung Yen province), the village of Dong Xam (Thai Binh province) and the village of (Ha Noi)
Hang Bac street was formed from the 18th century Streets in the old Quarter of Ha Noi, is where to focus those skilled goldsmiths creating fine jewelry and beautiful stars, famous in and outside Viet Nam The prominent features of the product is shaping art, create vein( sink line, rise line) sophisticate and lively
Hang Bac street long 280 meter Hang Mam street to the East, Hang Dao and Hang Ngang street to the West
Previously, Hang Bac streets has three different lines Compression casting silver, jewels and currency exchange trades They came from three village know as
filigree in northern of Viet Nam ChauKhe village (hung Yen province), the village
of Dong Xuan( ThaiBinh province) anhDinh Cong village In the 15th century , the minister mandarin LuuXuan Tin- who is the man of ChauKhe village which was assigned to the Le Dynasty making bullion foundry at ThangLong by the bullion used as currency to exchange He has put in ChauKhe workers to set up silver decorations
With craft map, the goldsmith in Hang Bacstreet, That makes gold more
sophisticated products, especially jewelry Goldsmith who usually caverd in Hang Bac on the filigree decoration by certain patterns as four supernatural creature ( dragon, toitous, unicorn, phoenix) is the most common form Particularly iconic dragon was skillful hands of artisans demonstrate many different themes: two dragon fighting over a pearl, two dragon see the moon and different patterns as Bat Vat, Bat Bao, Bat Qua… are also carving on the disc, platter of gold, silver
Over time history of ups and downs, the city has had many changes, but the typical architecture with street frontage is kept small, undulating roof adjacent
Trang 9Today, Hang Bac is one of the busiest streets of Hanoi Along the road are shops and shops selling gold, silver, jewelry attracted many passersby Innovative country craft craft tradition in general and gold jewelers in Hang Bac particular have adequate conditions for the development and conservation of the living standards
of the profession and jewelers still guaranteed In particular, traditional customary
"hereditary" is still kept
Workers with talented hands, deftly creating sophisticated products So far, jewelry retain traditional "hereditary"
Hang Bac street has many relies Kim Ngân communal house is one of those
Kim Ngan Communal House
The Kim Ngan Communal House is located at 42 Hang Bac Street This old architectural and religious structure was built in the post-Le Dynasty period During the time of King Gia Long, residents from ChauKheVillage (now in HaiDuongProvince) came to the imperial capital of Thang Long (modern-day Hanoi) and bought land to expand the communal house
The Kim Ngan Communal House covers an area of 575sq.m, wider than many other architectural works in Hanoi's Old Quarter It has a triumphal arch and
a courtyard The main part and the rear part of the communal house, each consists
of three rooms with worshipping ground and partitions between the compartments The rear part and the front part of the communal house are linked to each other by the double-roof architecture with the upper roof linked with the front part and the lower roof creating open space between the two parts
ChauKhe villagers came to reside in Hang Bac Street and expanded the Kim Ngan Communal House (also known as Duoi Communal House) to worship the father of the jewelry making craft but not the man who had offered them a special privilege that allowed them to develop this craft That man was LuuXuan Tin who was the prime minister under Le Thanh Tong Dynasty Allowed by the king to build a foundry to make silver ingots for the court, LuuXuan Tin took ChauKhe villagers to Thang Long and opened a jewelry school at 58 Hang Bac Street So,
Trang 10the cultural and historical values of the Kim Ngan Communal House are that it preserves the history of a traditional craft in Hanoi
Since 1890, the communal house had been used mostly as a meeting and ceremonial place During times of war, it was the place for teaching Vietnamese and nursing skills as well as military training After 1954, the front part of the communal house became the shelter for many families The worshipping area therefore was narrowed and the entire communal house was heavily damaged In 2004-2005, the Management Board of Hanoi's Old Quarter coordinated with Vietnamese and French experts to undertake research to identify the cultural, architectural and religious values of the communal house and assess its actual condition to find ways to restore the original form of the communal house In
2009, a project was initiated to restore and enhance the Kim Ngan Communal House with technical assistance of experts from Toulouse, France In January 2011, this project was completed and the communal house was opened to serve people's religious needs and visitors This will be a place for jewelers to share experiences
as well as a place to hold folk art and cultural activities which contribute to bringing into play the tangible and intangible cultural values of Hanoi's Old Quarter
Architects and historical researchers share the opinion that although it has not been classified as a historical relic, Kim Ngan Communal House is a valuable architectural and religious structure The restoration of the Kim Ngan Communal House and the 2011 Jeweler Festival will honor tangible and intangible cultural values of Hanoi's Old Quarter, contribute to popularizing the cultural and religious customs of Vietnamese people and improving their awareness of the need to conserve and bring into play the traditional cultural values of Hanoians
12:00 A.M The lunch at PhatLoc gate with búnđậumắmtôm and búnchả at the head of phấtLộc gate
12:45 P.M After lunch , tourist can relax at coffee shop at 60th PhatLoc gate -the place is decorated very nice
14:00 P.M Then go to Ngoc Son temple and HoanKiem lake