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idea of the layout, pop into the beautifully restored example at 87 Ma May (daily 9am–noon & 1–5pm 5000đ). Nowadays, the majority of facades bear distinctly European touches – faded wooden shutters, sagging balconies and rain-streaked moulding – dating from the early 1900s when the streets were widened for pavements. Certain occupants were too wealthy or influential to be shifted and you can find their houses still standing out of line along Hang Bac, Ma May and Hang Buom, three of the Old Quarter’s most interesting and attractive streets. Ma May also retains its own dinh, or communal house (at no. 64), which traditionally served as both meeting hall and shrine to the neighbourhood’s particular patron spirit, in this case a fourteenth-century mandarin and ambassador to the Chinese court.

Hanoi and around | The City | The Old Quarter |

Bach Ma Temple and the Guiding Light Mosque

Walking north along Ma May and onto Hang Buom, you pass a wealth of interesting detail typical of the quarter’s patchwork architecture: simple one-storey shophouses, some still sporting traditional red-tiled roofs; elaborate plaster-work and Art Deco styling from colonial days; and Soviet chic of the 1960s and 1970s – each superimposed on the basic tube-house design. Hang Buom is also home to the quarter’s oldest and most revered place of worship, Bach Ma Temple (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–6pm). The temple was founded in the ninth century and later dedicated to the White Horse (Bach Ma), the guardian spirit of Thang Long who posed as an ethereal site foreman and helped King Ly Thai To overcome a few problems with his citadel’s collapsing walls. The present structure dates largely from the eighteenth century and its most unusual features are a pair of charismatic, pot-bellied guardians in front of the altar who flaunt an impressive array of lacquered gold teeth. In front stands an antique palanquin, used each year to celebrate the temple’s foundation on the twelfth day of the second lunar month.

As you explore the quarter you’ll come across a great many other sacred sites – temples, pagodas, dinh and venerable banyan trees – hidden among the houses. One of the more surprising is the Guiding Light Mosque at no. 12 Hang Luoc, which was built in the 1890s by an Indian Islamic community of traders and civil servants, and now serves Muslims from Hanoi’s diplomatic community as the only mosque in northern Vietnam.

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Hanoi and around | The City | The Old Quarter | Bach Ma Temple and the Guiding Light Mosque |

What’s in a name

The Old Quarter’s street names date back five centuries to when the area was divided among 36 artisans’ guilds, each gathered around a temple or a dinh (communal house) dedicated to the guild’s patron spirit. Even today many streets specialize to some degree, and a few are still dedicated to the original craft or its modern equivalent. The most colourful examples are Hang Quat, full of bright-red banners and lacquerware for funerals and festivals, and Hang Ma, where paper products have been made for at least five hundred years. Nowadays gaudy tinsel dances in the breeze above brightly coloured votive objects, which include model TVs, dollars and cars to be offered to the ancestors. A selection of the more interesting streets with an element of specialization is listed below. Hang means merchandise.

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Street nameMeaningModern speciality

Ha Trong Drum skin Bag menders, upholsterers

Hang Bo Bamboo baskets Haberdashers

Hang Buom Sails Imported foods and alcohol, confectionery

Hang Chieu Sedge mats Mats, ropes, bamboo blinds

Hang Dau Oil Shoes

Hang Dieu Pipes Cushions, mattresses

Hang Duong Sugar Clothes, general goods

Hang Gai Hemp goods Silks, tailors, souvenirs

Hang Hom Wooden chests Glue, paint, varnish

Hang Ma Paper votive objects Paper goods

Hang Quat Ceremonial fans Religious accessories

Hang Thiec Tin goods Tin goods, mirrors

Hang Vai Fabrics Bamboo ladders

Lan Ong Eighteenth-century scholar-physician Traditional medicines, towels

Hanoi and around | The City | The Old Quarter