The Old Quarter of Hanoi

The Old Quarter. The Old Quarter is more than 2000 yeras old. In the 13th century it comprised 36 streets (The name "36 Streets" still sticks to this day) and each of the street housed a distinctive type of business or Hang in both Vietnamese and Cantonese. Even today to a certain extent some of the streets are still dedicated to the original craft or their modern form although for recent inventions like the PCs and mobile phones such shops are found all of the Old Quarter. The most colourful is Hang Guat Street decorated with bright red banners and lacquerware for funerals and religious festivals. The shop houses are all very narrow as the tax was based on the width of the shop front. Hence the traditional shop houses are known as "tube-houses". Many of the streets in the Old Quarter are very narrow but it is not much a problem even nowadays for the vehicles to navigate as they comprise mainly of motor cycles, bicycles and pedicabs known locally as cyclos.
Guan Chuong Gate. Found along Hang Chieu Street (street of mats and ropes) in the Old Quarter is the remnant of the old City Gate. The city wall was built in 1010 AD and the area inside the wall housed the emperor and his court. Of the four gates only the Guan Chuong Gate remained.
Sitting on low stools for their meals. A common sight in the Old Quarter are people sitting on low stools holding their bowl of food along the street pavements. Such sights brought back memories of my childhood in the 1950s and early 1960s. I enjoyed yam cake and Chinese crullers and "ham chin bank" (salty Chinese deep-fried cake) washed with watery rice porridge and red bean gruels sold by food vendors operating in the five-foot way along Bukit Bintang Road in Kuala Lumpur close to then BB Amusement Park. One or two old shop houses are still there although I do not know the fate of the vendors or their descendants.