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Hanoi is a city with more than a thousand years of history and culture. It became the capital of Vietnam in 1010 and right now the city is preparing for its 1000th birthday in 2010. With lots of green trees shading the boulevards and its picturesque lakes, Hanoi is an attractive and romantic city. The city is divided into three main quarters: the Old Quarter, the French Quarter and the New Quarter.

The Old Quarter was founded a thousand years ago and used to be the commercial centre of the city. There are 40 streets that still retain the name of the goods that were traded or manufactured there: fish street, drum street, fan street, cotton street, silk street, tin street, shoe street … and even coffin street. Now only more than 20 % of these streets still selling the product with the same name of the street, but the custom of the whole street just selling the same kind of product is still very strong identity of the city. The streets here are narrow and convoluted, and you can easily wander through them for days of discovery. For the traveler, it is also the best place for shopping with some famous streets like Hang Gai ( silk street) for all silk, cloth products of Art Gallery, Hang Hom (coffin street) for lacquer ware, To Tich street for different kind of handicraft…

The French Quarter was built about hundred years ago by the French after they occupied the city. Very soon after that, Hanoi turned to be the Capital of Indochina until 1945. That can explain that why we can find the biggest influences of French in this city, not only in architecture but also in art, literature as well as life style of the people. There are about 7200 French style villas, government offices and the famed Opera House remaining from that time. Because of this, Hanoi became known as “The Paris of the East”. Efforts are being made to renovate the old houses in the original style. The vibrant Old Quarter and French Quarter make Hanoi different from other cities in Asia. People here are little more conservative than southerners yet once introduced they are very open and friendly.