Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [286]
Hanoi tour agents offer organized day-trips to a selection of craft villages for around $15 to $25 per person. Note that some villages levy a small entry fee.
Hanoi and around | Around Hanoi | The craft villages |
Bat Trang
BAT TRANG, across the Red River in Hanoi’s Gia Lam District, is an easy jaunt by road over Chuong Duong Bridge, then immediately right along the levy; note that pedal cyclists have to use Long Bien Bridge, a short distance further north. After 10km heading generally south, following signs to Xuan Quan, a right turn indicates the village entrance. A half-day xe om excursion is expensive when waiting time is included; better are the #47 buses (3000đ) from Long Bien bus station, which depart every 15 minutes or so.
Bat Trang has been producing bricks and earthenware since the fifteenth century, and the oldest part of the village beside the river has a medieval aura, with its narrow, high-walled alleys spattered with handmade coal-pats (used as fuel in the kilns) drying in the sun; to reach this area, continue straight ahead at the end of the main street (Duong Giang Cao) and keep going generally west. Through tiny doorways, you catch glimpses of courtyards stacked with moulds and hand-painted pots, while all around rise the squat brick chimneys of the traditional coal-fired kilns. Around two thousand families live in Bat Trang, producing time-honoured blue-and-white ceramics alongside more contemporary designs as well as mass-produced floor tiles and balustrades to feed Hanoi’s building boom. The village has expanded rapidly in recent years, thanks largely to a healthy export market, and now boasts some 2500 kilns. Most are now gas-fired, but air pollution and respiratory infections remain a problem. Showrooms along the main drag offer a bewildering choice. Prices are not necessarily any cheaper than in Hanoi itself, though the range is superior and it’s easier to bargain. In some of the bigger workshops (such as Hoa Lan Ceramics, 81 Duong Giang Cao) you can paint your own design and have the piece delivered to your hotel once it’s fired.
Hanoi and around | Around Hanoi | The craft villages |
Van Phuc and Chuong
The silk village of VAN PHUC, 11km west of Hanoi on Highway 6, is often included as a quick stop on trips to the Perfume Pagoda or can be combined with visits to the Thay and Tay Phuong pagodas (see "Thay Pagoda (the Master’s Pagoda)" & (See "The craft villages")) – the village is about a kilometre north of Ha Dong post office on the Quoac Hai road. Once you’re through the entrance arch, the clatter of electric looms from the thirty-odd workshops fills the air. You’re welcome to wander into any of them, and will be given a brief explanation, but there’s nothing much to detain you unless you’re shopping for silk. Material is a shade cheaper than in Hanoi, while finished items such as scarves and clothes can be as little as half the price.
Further west, conical hats are the staple product of CHUONG village (also known as Phuong Trung) which lies just off Highway 21b a couple of kilometres south of Thanh Oai on the road to the Perfume Pagoda (See "The Perfume Pagoda"). It’s best to visit on market days (held six times each lunar month), when hats are piled high in golden pyramids. At other times it’s possible to see artisans deftly assembling the dried leaves on a bamboo frame. Traditionally the designs varied according to the different needs: thick and robust for working in the fields, more delicate for outings to the temple and other special occasions, and flat, ornamented hats for fashion-conscious aristocrats. Nowadays the vast majority of families produce the basic conical hat for everyday wear, though two still specialize in the more elaborate designs demanded by theatre and dance troupes.
Hanoi and around | Around Hanoi |
Co Loa citadel
The earliest independent Vietnamese states grew up in the Red River flood plain, atop low hills or crouched behind sturdy embankments. First to emerge from the mists of legend