Old Quater, Hanoi

The History of Hanoi's Old Quarter by Barbara Cohen
The history of Hanoi's Old Quarter spans 2000 years. It lies between the Returned 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. Present-day Hanoi ('Inside the Riverbend') was once a turtle and alligator-infested swamp, then a cluster of villages made up of houses on stilts. The villages were unified by Chinese administrators who built ramparts around their headquarters and called the area "Dominated Annam." In the late tenth century the Vietnamese attained independence from the Chinese. King Ly Thai To made the city his capital in 1010 and gave it the name Thang Long ('Soaring Dragon'.)
According to legend, the King began rebuilding the former Chinese palace, but the walls tumbled down. While he prayed to the local earth god, a white horse emerged from the temple and galloped West. The King decided to build his citadel walls along the traces of its hoof prints and declared the white horse the city's guardian. The White Horse (Bach Ma) Pagoda on Hang Buom Street still pays homage to that guardian.
In early the thirteenth century guilds evolved from the collection of tiny workshop villages which clustered around the walled palace to satisfy the court's demand for the highest quality products. Artisan guilds worked and lived together developing systems for the transport merchandise from the village of manufacture to the designated streets in the business quarter which sells it. The Commercial city was ideally located between the Palace and the transportation capabilities of the river. A market was at the onetime confluence of the To Lich and Red Rivers (the ancient market Dong Xuan, still stands and remains an active market today.) Skilled crafts people migrated there to fill that need.
A majority of the street names here start with Hang, which means merchandise or shop. The guild streets were named for 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 Vietnam.
Each guild had its own patron saint to which many local temples are dedicated. Hang Bong Street has five such temples.
Because inhabitants of each street came from the same village and performed the same craft, streets developed a homogeneous look. Commoners' homes, evolved out of market stalls before streets ever came into existence. Because shops were taxed by the width of frontage on the market, storage and living space moved to the rear. They developed into the long and narrow houses, called tube houses.
Although the area is often called the 36 old streets, there may have actually been more. Some believe that the number 36 came from the Fifteenth century when there might have been 36 guilds. Others attribute the name "36" to a more abstract concept. The number 9 in Asia represents "plenty." Nine times 4 (the four directions) would make 36 which means simply: many.
By the seventeenth century the city was protected by 16 gates which were locked at night by heavy wooden doors. The Quan Chuong gate built in 1744 still stands at the end of Hang Chieu street. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Nguyen Dynasty set up its capital in Hue. Thang Long, renamed Hanoi, lost its political power but retained its economic vitality. The citadel of Hanoi was reconstructed and remains the western boundary of the Old Quarter.
By the late nineteenth century, Hanoi once again became a political center, now of the French Indochinese Union. South of the Lake, native buildings were razed to make way for the cream-colored colonial offices and villas whose shutters and doors were invariably green, Rivers and ponds were filled as health measures against mosquitoes and to increase available land. North of the lake the maze of narrow alleys continued to grow haphazardly. After the French withdrawal in 1954, Hanoi became the capital of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and socialist austerity prevailed. During the American War resources were devoted to fighting and the Old Quarter hardly changed. In 1972 when the city was bombed, buildings were destroyed in the Kim Lien district but the commercial quarter remained intact.
The Old Quarter is precious legacy of Hanoi's ancient past, but the area is challenged by rapid changes. Today handicraft production is being increasingly replaced by restaurants, repair shops, and tailors. Craft workers constitute only 9% of the population. Traders make up 40%. As the population increases, historically important buildings have become living spaces, schools or shops.
At the same time, since the policy of economic openness policy of 1987 a dramatic building boom has begun, threatening the charm of the district. Multi-story buildings are going up which use out-of-place finishing techniques and designs. Local, national, and international agencies are formulating plans to preserve the historic ambiance of the Old Quarter.
Hanoi's Old Quarter: the 36 streetsby Barbara Cohen
As the oldest continuously developed area of Vietnam, Hanoi’s Old Quarter has a history that spans 2,000 years and represents the eternal soul of the city. Located between the Lake of the Restored Sword, the Long Bien Bridge, a former city rampart, and a citadel wall, the Old Quarter 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.
In the early 13th century, the collection of tiny workshop villages which clustered around the palace walls evolved into craft cooperatives, or guilds.
The Old Quarter began to acquire its reputation as a crafts area when the Vietnamese attained independence in the 11th century and King Ly Thai To built his palace there. In the early 13th century, the collection of tiny workshop villages which clustered around the palace walls evolved into craft cooperatives, or guilds. Skilled craftsmen migrated to the Quarter, and artisan guilds were formed by craftsmen originating from the same village and performing similar services. Members of the guilds worked and lived together, creating a cooperative system for transporting merchandise to the designated streets in the business quarter.
Because inhabitants of each street came from the same village, streets developed a homogeneous look. Commoners’ homes evolved out of market stalls, before streets were formed. Because storekeepers were taxed according to the width of their storefront, storage and living space moved to the rear of the buildings. Consequently, the long and narrow buildings were called "tube houses." Typical measurements for such houses are 3 meters wide by 60 meters long.
The Old Quarter has a rich religious heritage. When the craftsmen moved from outlying villages into the capital, they brought with them their religious practices. They transferred their temples, pagodas and communal houses to their new location. Each guild has one or two religious structures and honors its own patron saint or founder. Therefore, on each street in the Old Quarter there is at least one temple. Now, many of the old temples in the Old Quarter have been transformed into shops and living quarters, but some of the old buildings’ religious roots can still be recognized by the architecture of their roofs.
Although the old section of Hanoi is often called the "36 Old Streets," there are more than 36 actual streets. Some researchers believe that the number 36 came from the 15th century when there might have been 36 guild locations, which were workshop areas, not streets. When streets were later developed, the guild names were applied to the streets. Others attribute the 36 to a more abstract concept. The number nine in Asia represents the concept of "plenty." Nine times the four directions makes 36, which simply means "many." There are now more than 70 streets in the area.
Some streets have achieved fame by their inclusion in popular guidebooks. Han Gai Street offers silk clothing ready-made and tailored, embroidery, and silver products. Hang Quat, the street that formerly sold silk and feather fans, now stuns the visitor by its brilliantly colored funeral and festival flags and religious objects and clothing. To Thinh Street connects the above two and is still the wood turner’s street. Hang Ma glimmers with shiny paper products, such as gift wrappings, wedding decorations and miniature paper objects to burn for the dead. Lan Ong Street is a sensual delight of textures and smells emanating from the sacks of herbal medicinal products: leaves, roots, barks, and powders.
Let us turn now to nine of the lesser known streets in the Old Quarter that possess a unique character worth exploring.
Hang Bac Street
A majority of the street names in the Old Quarter start with the word hang. Hang means merchandise or shop. The guild streets were named for their product, service or location. Hang Bac, one of the oldest streets in Vietnam, dates from at least the 13th century. Bac means silver, and appropriately, this street started as a silver ingot factory under the reign of Le Thanh Tong (1469-1497). Village people, called the "Trau Khe silver casters," were brought into the capital to cast silver bars and coins. After a ceremony to transfer their craft from their village of Trau Khe to Hanoi, they set up two temples to honor the founders of their craft. At one communal house, the silver was molten and poured into molds. At the other communal house, the molds were further processed for delivery to the Prime Minister. The crafters went to great lengths to keep their methods secret to avoid counterfeit products.
At the turn of the 18th century, the street took on more varied functions. In addition to the casting of silver ingots, the street attracted more jewelry makers and money exchangers. Money exchangers thrived, since in the old days, paper money was not used. Instead, currency consisted of bronze and zinc coins and silver ingots. When merchants needed a large amount of money for business transactions, they would exchange the heavy metal bars on Hang Bac. During the French time it was called "Exchange Street." Although paper currency was later used, the word for it included the word bac.
Hang Bac also has jewelers of different types: engravers, smelters, polishers, and gold-leaf makers. The first jewelry makers were the Dong Cac guild, which settled during the Le dynasty (1428-1788). They founded a temple dedicated to three brothers who learned their art in China in the 6th century, and who are considered the patron saints of the Vietnamese jewelry making profession.
There are several famous buildings on this street. In the communal house on Hang Bac, there is a stone stele, built in 1783, telling about a Mandarin who forcibly took over the communal house. The locals took him to court and won back their building. The Dung Tho Temple is dedicated to Chu Bi, a Taoist deity. At the end of the French colonial period, this temple had been named Truong Ca, after a person who watched over the temple and served the best noodle soup. One building on this street is the pride of contemporary history-the Chuong Vang (Golden Bell) Theater, which still hosts traditional Vietnamese theater performances. The former traditional-venue theater, the To Nhu (Quang Lac) Theater built in the 1920s, also is on this street but has been transformed into apartments.
Hang Be Street
In the mid-19th century, the guild of bamboo raft makers was located on this street outside the My Loc gate, one of the many sturdy gates to the city. The cai mang raft consisted of 12 to 15 large bamboo poles lashed together by strips of green bamboo bark. Their anterior was slightly raised by heating the wood, and the aft was rigged with three quadrangular sails made of coarse linen dyed with extracts of sweet potato skins.
Bamboo rafts were sensible for Hanoi’s shallow rivers, lakes and swamps, which can not provide solid anchorage or natural shelter from storms. The flat design better weathered the seasonal typhoons that lash the northern part of Vietnam, and is better adapted to coastal and river fishing. The bamboo poles from which the rafts were constructed were sold one block east on Hang Tre Street.
Cau Go Street
Meaning "Wooden Bridge," Cau Go Street is located one block north of the Lake of the Restored Sword, and was in fact the location of a wooden bridge. About 150 years ago, the bridge crossed a thin stream of water connecting the Thai Cuc Lake with the Lake of the Restored Sword. Dyers from the neighboring Silk Street set out their silk to dry or bleached their fabric beside the bridge. Under the French occupation, the lake and stream were filled as health measures and to increase buildable land. The little wooden bridge became a regular street.
On the edge of the lake, women in wide brimmed hats once sold armfuls of flowers to the French for a few coins. Today a flower market exists where the Cau Go alley intersects with the main street. Other historical sites on Cau Go are the secret headquarters and hiding place of the 1930-45 "Love the Country" resistance movement.
Cau Go today is a commercial street specializing in women’s accessories.
Hang Dao Street
This street is one of Vietnam’s oldest streets. It serves as a main axis running from north to south, cutting the Old Quarter in half. In the French Colonial time, Hang Dao Street was a center for the trading of silk products. On the first and sixth days of the lunar month, there were fairs for the sale of silk items. Shops also sold other types of fabric such as gauze, brocade, crepe, and muslin. Almost all the non-silk products were white.
In the beginning of the 15th century, this street was the location of the silk dyer guild from the Hai Hung Province, which specialized in a deep pink dye. Dao, the name of the street, refers to the pink of apricot blossoms, which are symbolic of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The demand for this special color was so high that the fabric had to be dyed at other locations as well