The Old Quarter

Thirty-six-odd streets north of the lake, each one historically a single guild’s trade, and most of them still named for it. Hang means merchandise: Hang Bac is silver, Hang Gai is silk, Hang Thiec is tin, Hang Ma is votive paper. Some have kept the trade, some have swapped it for something else, and a few — the tinsmiths, the paper offerings — you can still hear from the far end of the street.

The buildings are tube houses: two or three metres of frontage, thirty or forty metres deep, because they were once taxed on width. The whole quarter is a grid you cannot get lost in for long, because the lake is always downhill of you.

What it costs

⭐ Free. This is a neighbourhood, not an attraction, and there is nothing to buy a ticket for.

The heritage house at 87 Ma May is restored and open with a small admission if you want to see the inside of a tube house properly.

When to go

Two completely different quarters live here. Between about six and eight in the morning it is a wholesale market — produce arriving, pavements washed, everyone eating breakfast on the street. After dark it is bars and stools and noise.

⭐ The weekend walking streets close the core to traffic from Friday evening, which is the only time you can stand in the middle of Hang Dao.

Getting there

North from Hoan Kiem Lake. Hang Dao runs from the lake to Dong Xuan Market and is the spine; everything else hangs off it.

⭐ Expect to walk in the road. The footpath is where the city trades, cooks, parks and eats, so it is usually full. Walking in the traffic lane at the edge is normal here and drivers expect it — keep to a straight line and let them come around you.

If you only have an hour

Walk Hang Dao north to the market, then come back down a parallel street — Hang Bac or Ma May — rather than the way you came. Ten minutes of that is worth an hour of any list.

What people get wrong

⚠️ There are not exactly thirty-six streets and there never were. The number is traditional. Counting them is not the point; noticing that the shops on one street all sell the same thing is.

⚠️ Crossing the road is the skill this city asks of you. There is rarely a gap and waiting for one does not work. Step off the kerb and walk at a slow, even pace without stopping; the motorbikes read your speed and go around you. The two things that cause accidents are stopping in the middle and running back. Cars and buses will not swerve for you, so cross behind them, not in front. Give it one block and it stops being frightening.