Our Recommended Hanoi Hotels
- Maison D'Hanova
- Sunway Hotel
- Sofitel Plaza
- Sofitel Metropole
Hanoi Information
Hanoi holidays
Vietnam's capital is described by almost all who go there as "an old-fashioned city". Old-fashioned in style, it is a city of lakes, parks, trees, villas, mansions and an area called the Old French Quarter where crumbling houses are crammed into narrow alleyways that are still named after the goods that were traded there - Silk Street, Gold Street, even Fried Fish Street! Old-fashioned in atmosphere, Hanoi has sidewalk cafes, pavement barbers, less traffic than Saigon, less frenetic rushing about, less noise, simply less people. Wide tree-lined bicycle-filled boulevards, elegant colonial French mansions, the grandeur and solemnity of Ho Chi Minh's monumental Mausoleum, the incongruous rustic simplicity of the house in which 'Uncle Ho' lived out his final years, the barely concealed misery of the Hoa Lo Prison, the 'Hanoi Hilton' where so many prisoners of war were incarcerated, the religious pride that constructed the beautiful temple of Literature compound - it's all here in Hanoi, a microcosm of the Vietnamese culture.
Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Minh during the WWII in order to gain independence from France. Fighting continued until 1954 when the French surrendered to the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu and Hanoi became capital of North Vietnam, but Ho Chi Minh was determined to reunite the whole country. The USA came to the support of South Vietnam and full-scale war broke out in 1965. The Americans withdrew in 1973 and fighting continued until 1975 when Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops. Vietnam was reunited under Hanoi and communist rule the following year.
For many years Hanoi had a reputation as an austere city, unwelcoming to visitors. Life was hard for the residents as the city and country rebuilt itself. Hanoi had been continuously bombed by the Americans throughout the Vietnam War. Following years of rampant inflation, poverty and repression, the government introduced economic reform or doi moi in 1986, allowing people to own their own businesses. Now Hanoi has been totally transformed and visitors are entranced by the city and its residents.
