Old City Gate still remains intact The old, musty smell has been lingering for several hundred years like crowding around long-distance customers. From the endless dark alley emanates tiny, low apartments along the entrance, but since the Ly dynasty there has never been any sunlight. For the door and the only window facing a niche that didn’t even have any light for me. My street and West street When we were in high school, we used to bring fabric to a tailor shop on Hang Buom street. Her ten-square-meter room is powered up all year round, day and night. The greasy neon light is not enough to show the ancient green marble stones, which are covered with fabrics and accessories so that when the guests come in crowded, they just stand around the sewing machine and exchange soup. Don’t have a seat. The old town house often has a courtyard, from which it will make a sharp turn to the stairs leading up to the “mysterious” apartments on the second floor, for a time there were countless articles about the horror of public toilets on it. So the house still has a few square meters, where did we get the toilet? Yet, people still appreciate each square of the old town. I have a neighbor who lives in the same apartment building, who has moved in Hai Phong, and is also the parent of a student in my daughter’s class. Her house is 150m2, corner, light is full, but still cramped. The day the parents gathered for a picnic, she said if the old town family would give it or not, she would not live. I’d rather go to the woods better. Seeing this, a parent in the old town opened his heart to criticize, and since then, an argument broke out. Someone who told them to live in the forest was less miserable. Some people called for living in the old town to be as happy as a king. Anything is available, just walking three steps to buy what they need. I sat and listened, just like a Western man with a Ta quarreling over which cheese or shrimp paste is more fragrant. The second Old Quarter is actually the old one – formed during the French colonial period, starting in the south and east of Hoan Kiem lake and then extending down to Ba Trieu and Nguyen Thai Hoc streets. If the “Hang” quarter was crowded like a chess board, designed to match the general character of the Vietnamese, then the ancient French area was square and scientific, the most beautiful place was Trang Tien Street. Along with it are Hai Ba Trung, Ly Thuong Kiet, Tran Hung Dao, Nguyen Du, Tran Nhan Tong. Thien Quang Lake is the boundary that ends this old French quarter. From Van Ho, Kim Lien, Bach Mai onwards, the French did not live. They built houses to serve French officials and senior staff. Therefore, Indochinese architecture in the old French quarter has really become a specialty of Hanoi. The streets running from the beginning of Sword Lake in the North, to the South, towards Thien Quang Lake are Hang Bai, Hue Street, Ba Trieu, Quang Trung, Quan Su, Tran Binh Trong, connecting with the horizontal streets into one the luxury center of the Capital. In that place, Thien Quang Lake is the soul with the cool scent of milk flowers. I grew up in this area and heard my mother tell me about the people of that area, since the time when the French legionnaires were still walking around on Nguyen Thuong Hien’s sidewalk. She also mentioned that at the beginning of the street in the East (Vu Huu Loi street) was the musician Van Cao, the writer Nguyen Tuan at the end of the street in the west, the writer Tran Dan in the middle of the street. Artist To Ngoc Van was at the town of Yet Kieu, writer Te Hanh, Nguyen Van Bong and a number of big names drove across Nguyen Thuong Hien. As for the families of To Hoai and Kim Lan, they are also on Tran Quoc Toan street. Isn’t the Thien Quang lake land in a favorable time? Trang Tien Street and the Opera House in the French colonial period Childhood imprints I was born and saw the old French houses surrounded by confetti on the walls of the mansion, giant green shutters, moss-speckled yellow walls, ancient iron gates and even more. a large, quiet tiled yard. Even now, if you ignore the cafes, restaurants and fashion shops on the ground floor and look up to the balconies with the original Indochinois style (room away from Indochina), a dreamy sky is still there. Many times I think that my taste has been raised a few levels because since childhood, it has been covered with sight by this beautiful space. My primary, middle and high school are located right next to Thien Quang Lake. During the military training week, we were also brought to the edge of the lake by the teachers to train under the shade of the milk flower trees that had not yet reached winter. Then at the end of the session, they walked along Quang Trung Street and returned to school. Anyone who was not able to study would always flee to the other side of the road to come home. When I was in elementary school, I used to “stick as much as possible” to my father to Lo Su for snacks. Every time he turns to the dried cow mannequin in the shortest Hoan Kiem street in the capital, and he says he still eats there in 7th grade. That is, my father has been eating cow mannequins there for … decades. From the time of “the ancestor”, the cow mannequin was still ragging through the life of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as now. No wonder the ancestors of the culinary custom, Nguyen Tuan, Thach Lam, Vu Bang … all grew up in Hang Gai, Hang Bac, where delicious restaurants are available, so they are immersed in Hanoi’s food. Half a century ago, my father still has an immutable “culture” that perhaps only found in Hanoi and Saigon people, which is the habit of drinking morning coffee. If I go to the street and need to see him and cannot contact him, at that time, just visit the coffee shop in the Tran Hung Dao area, the Opera House will find him between two dozen gray-haired women. They are journalists, photographic artists … who had a relationship with him for three quarters of a century. After decades of being a friend, I met each day even more than I was snuggling with my childhood friends. Residents of the old town, they know by heart each nail shop, clock counter, gas lighter pump shop, or the top box selling shrimp paste in the middle of Hang Be market. Even an old woman who specializes in thread turning needs to leave the wooden box on the sidewalk and then go upstairs to take a nap, but the customers know the way to call down. Ho Thien Quang The standard of love The people of the old town not only love the city and get drunk, but also pass the gene on to their children. Not my parents kept telling the fairy tales of the street every day, from the day Ly Nam De Street was still Love Street (because it was always so many trees and so deserted that couples went there for a walk. and confidently) before turning the city “Hang Tin”, specializing in selling computers, and there was always a lot of traffic jams in the next half century. Then I also manipulated these stories for my daughter every time I passed the architectural buildings of Indochina, dyed in the sunset light. “Mother always climbed the wall to hide from school here. In this corner of the lake, her mother and Ms. Thuy often take pictures with the red corn spreader. As for Le Duan street, my mother always rides her bike alone. This is the best mixed tea in the world that mom often eats every time she goes to tutoring ”. My daughter grew up in Cau Giay district, she looked at the old town blankly, and she loves the street so much that everything in the old town has become the norm. Not loving the street, writer Nguyen Viet Ha, a resident of Nha Chung Street, wrote “Con Giai old town” with pride that did not hide the distinction between the street and the peripheral … And painter Le Thiet Cuong, who owns an expensive house right on Ly Quoc Su street, is so arrogant that motorbikes do not go, cars do not drive … walk, too much, cycling, showing the I don’t have to go anywhere more than 500m. Writer Di Li Anyone who has urgent need to come knock on Ly Quoc Su’s door, otherwise they will just hang around the street. Busy, we had an appointment with 4 people by Thien Quang Lake, he said: “Wait a second, I rode there for up to 10 minutes”. So exactly 7 minutes later, I saw the old town artist in orange pants leisurely building his car at a milky tree. Perhaps Le Thiet Cuong thought, wherever the 10-minute bike ride is the standard.

Old town is the first place to visit for tourists from all over the world when coming to Hanoi. They are curious about the old beauty of Hanoi, a thousand years of civilization. However, hidden behind the noisy and bustling features of the shops growing up close by, are the dark, microscopic alleys. Those are small, deep alleys, just one person. Entering each small alley is like stepping into a tunnel, groping forever without seeing the sun. Especially, in Hang Buom street, deep and narrow alleyways appear alternately. The way a large frontage house to an alley. The narrowest section width is nearly 50-60 cm. Ngo Brick Street, Hoan Kiem District – this place is known to many people for its tiny alleys when their width is less than 50 cm. Through this dark “tunnel” are the houses lurking behind. These small alleys form hundreds of hundreds of years. Hanoians are also accustomed to this cramped lifestyle. Households enjoy the same living space and collective kitchen. Every house door is close together. Few people can imagine that in that seemingly small alley, there are people who accept to live with darkness and humidity. This is house No. 34, Phat Loc alley, according to people living here, the house of Hoan Kiem factory is considered to be the oldest and the worst in Hang Buom ward. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tuan lives in a 12m2 house at 32, Phat Loc (Hang Buom Ward, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi) for nearly 40 years. “I have lived here since the day I came back as a bride. This house my mother-in-law rented from the State, only 12m2, but for 4 generations … “ “Now the house has deteriorated a lot, the walls are loose, damp, when there are heavy rains, the house leaks, the windows are beaten by the wind”, Ms. Tuan said. Her husband spent more than 10 years, Mrs. Tuan alone took care of the whole family. She said: “There is no new rent, but living conditions like this are too much, I just hope to have a policy of relaxing people so that the whole family can move to a new place”. Because the house is so small, she makes use of the area next to no one to rent. In the same situation, living in house 34, Phat Loc, is still a lot of tenants. Ms. Zhao Tieu Hoa (77 years old) shared: “I have been staying in this house for 70 years. Now the children also live in this house “. Despite her old age, Ms. Hoa is daily groping for her way in the dark “cellar” going up and down to cook rice in the first floor collective kitchen. Over half of her life, with Mrs. Hoa, life is like that. “Enough, do not want to change anymore”. This is the house of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ty (85 years old) at 96 Hang Buom. The house is only 9m2, and below is the kitchen, the toilet, above is the attic for her to sleep. “I have lived here since 1957, the day before, a family of seven lived here. Later, my children got married to live separately, I lived here alone. Sometimes my children and grandchildren would come home to visit their mother, ”said Mrs. Ty. According to observation, in these lane areas there are many degraded houses, in addition to the interlocking electrical system, the tubular house has no escape route, the fire alarm system is not equipped with potentially many fire risks. explosive. According to statistics in the Hoan Kiem district, there are more than 1,000 alleys and alleys so small that only one person can pass. There are even alleys that people passing by have to stoop, wriggle, look very miserable, but it is normal of the people of the old town. Living so cramped, dark, but many people still accept and satisfied because it seems to have become a habit, a cultural feature of Hanoi Old Quarter.

The alley is only half a meter wide, deep, smoking, people have to turn on the electricity 24/24 to see the path, the entrance can only be one by one.

Alleyways are only available in Hanoi’s Old Quarter

Along the streets such as: Hang Buom, Hang Chieu, Hang Duong, Lane Brick, Lo Su … are super-small alleyways, right behind the shops with splendid light; is known as a “specialty” of Hanoi Old Quarter.

Streets located in the old town area are called “diamond streets” of Hanoi, with a value of up to billions of VND / m2, equivalent to land prices in the most expensive cities in the world. like New York, Paris or Tokyo.

In the area of ​​Hang Ngang – Hang Dao, Dinh Tien Hoang, the price of road surface is said to be from 800 million to more than 1 billion VND / m2.

Most of the households living in these alleys are families with 3 generations, sharing a small house, only 10m2.

An alley on Hang Buom Street, deep and dark like a tunnel.

Mr. Le Cong Vinh (70 years old, Hang Buom street) said: “Although I am used to living here, sometimes I find it inconvenient. Every time you want to renovate the house, you have to pay more labor costs to carry the materials bit by bit from outside the entrance to the house ”.

According to Mr. Vinh, the biggest inconvenience here is the lack of common living space for everyone. Every time anyone’s house has a table, they have to borrow the space of the next house to have enough room for guests. When shopping for household appliances, everyone has to consider, calculate and only dare to buy items with the size that can pass through the lane.

Even during the day, even with the lights on, the alley is still dark.

Mr. Le Ngoc Anh (45 years old, Hang Buom street) expressed concern: “I only care for children who do not have a place to play and play. Every afternoon, they come home from school to see them sitting in the house watching TV or playing on the phone.

Alley space is narrow, many families with young children often have to go to the park or walk around the street to save trouble.

The lane’s meager space is used as a place for furniture, goods, and bicycles.

The electrical wiring and meters above are installed running along the small alley, potentially many risks, not ensuring electrical safety and fire prevention.

“The alley, the house is cramped, but it can’t be helped to move.”

Located deep in the alley only about 50cm wide, with dim electric lights on Hang Buom street, the house of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long’s family has two floors, each floor is less than 10m2 but has 6 people, 3 generations. live together.

Mr. Long shared: “Although living conditions are quite tight, many households here do not want to move anywhere. Moreover, if we move, we do not know what kind of profession to make a living ”.

The small room, narrow alley, and Mr. Long’s furniture are only “moderate” in size.

An alley corner is used as a cooking place.

Many households have to share living space to save space.

The alley is very narrow, only one person can pass, so people often wait for each other to take each car out one by one …

Le Thi Gai (75 years old, Lo Su street, Hoan Kiem district) shared that her family has lived here since the 1960s, most of people here are manual labor, small businesses. in the old town. Although there are many inconveniences, the households living in these alleys are very united.

“Previously, 4 households in the alley used the same toilet, now life is better, each house built its own toilet, but we still told you to clean the way together. go, everyone’s living space ”.

A small, deep alley is nestled among flashy street shops.

Since 1998, the People’s Committee of Hanoi has started an old town migration project with the aim of reducing population density in the AQ from 823 people / ha in 2010 to 500 people / ha. Accordingly, the area of ​​Hoan Kiem old town has to move over 6,500 households, with about 27,000 people.

In the middle of 2019, the project of stretching the old town continues to restart after the years that seem to have “fallen asleep”. However, after more than 20 years of implementing this population relaxation project, the old quarters with a large population density, narrow houses crowded in deep streets continue to recur. Damage, peeling walls, steel core inside is common.

The alleys are not noisy, no hustle and bustle, still quietly nestled on the bustling streets of more than 20 years. The people living in it still keep harmony with each other, yield to the little common space, and preserve the civilized lifestyle of Ha Thanh land.