Hoan Kiem lake

Hoan Kiem lake - nice as "corbeille" of flower, in the centre of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem lake is surrounded by Dinh Tien Hoang, Le Thai To, Hang Khay street. These three streets, is 1.800 km long. The surface is the big mirror cat, tortoise.

The tortoise is one of four animals (dragon, eagle) is the mind of Vietnamese. This sare kind of tortoise has been existing in lake. It sometimes emerges in the surface. It's very happy for tourist to see it.

In lake there are two floating islands. The bigger one is Ngoc Island in the North. Near (east), there is the Te Huc bridge connecting two islands. Tortoise Island is smaller, there is temple in the South of lake. Among four side, water is twinkling.

Time elapsed and in the 20th century, the Lake is smaller, with an area of a little more than 10 hectares and a circumference of roughly two thousand meters. By the start of the century, all the gardens and bamboo groves, hamlets and villages, temples and pagodas, were replaced by roads running round the take which today are called Hang Khay, Dinh Tien Hoang and Le Thai To Streets.

The images of the old days still live on in the priceless monuments, which speak volumes about the vicissitudes of life in which the human heart has never changed.

Let's start from the intersection of Trang Tien - Hang Khay. On the side of the Lake still stands a small tower that was the soul of the ancient imperial capital for sometime: the "Hoa Phong" Tower, the sole relic of the colossal "Quan Thuong" Temple that has been destroyed (the International Post Office now stands on this site). The Tower used to stand in the centre of the garden of the vast Temple with golden and silvery roofs, bigger towers...

A short walk in the northern direction stands the "Ba Kieu" Temple, next to the present-day statuary complex "Resolute Sacrifice for National Survival". The Temples worships Lady Lieu Hanh, a Vietnamese women ordained as "Vietnamese Mother" who is also worshipped in hundreds of localities. The stalls where souvenirs and handicraft articles are on sale, on the edge of the Lake, occupy the site of the original 3entrance gate (an oriental gatehouse very popular in the old days) which has been pushed further away by Dinh Tien Hoang Road.

Having passed by "Thuy Ta" Building completed in 1940, the bronze statue of King Le Thai To in his royal hat, with his imperial sword in hand pointing to the Lake as if he were returning it to the Tortoise Genie. The statue was erected in 1888, standing on a tall marble pedestal, his legs astride like a bronze drum, and below a stone tablet is found recording an essay of the great poet Nguyen Du, well known for his novel in verse -Kim Van Kieu - that all the Viet know by heart, or at least a couple of the verses.

Then come the double roads running up to Trang Thi Street that Pharmacist Tham Hoang Tin ordered built when he was the Mayor of Hanoi in 1950.

However, what is worth speaking about, and also most valuables, is the group of relics on the water of the Lake itself. Virtually all the Vietnamese have a wish to visit it once, and no foreign visitors can leave Viet- without beholding it. The group of monuments include Ngoc Son Temple, with Thap But Tower, the The Huc Bridge, and Tran Ba Pavilion.

"Dao Ngoc" (the Jade Island), is a little islet emerging from the water looking like a I ittle jade in the morning dew and used to be the site of the "Thuy Khanh" Palace of the Kings of the Le Dynasty, and later the Trinh Lords. After Emperor Quang Trung liberated Thang Long, the Palace of the Trinh Lords was returned to a Le King. King Le Chieu Thong burned down this summer palace to take revenge upon the Trinh Lords and after that only a little temple was left standing on the deserted island.

Nguyen Sieu, a poet, teacher, provincial mandarin in charge of criminal cases and a Hanoian, well known throughout the country, was born in Kim Lu Village in the suburbs of Hanoi. He began running a school to teach on the bank of the-To Lich River (where a street has taken his name Nguyen Sieu Street) and had the little shrine rebuilt into a majestic and magnificent. Temple to worship Van Xuong the Genie in charge of learning, and latter also Tran Hung Dao, a national hero and general. Nguyen Sieu also had a pavilion built on the edge of the islet, i.e. the Tran Ba Pavilion, with four roofs on lacquer columns rising from a square floor consolidated with rock on the embankment. To connect the island with the bank, a curving bridge was built looking like the sickle-moon or an ivory comb. The scholar called it "The Huc" Bridge, the one welcoming the morning sunshine, and had a tower built, the "Thap But "(Pen) Tower, on the "Doc Ton" Mount. The quill pen standing on top of the mount seemed to write poems on the blue sky, hence the presence of the three words "Ta Thanh Thien at the base of the tower. "Pens must go together with ink", so at the end of the "The Huc" Bridge is a gate with ' an inkstand in the form of two halves of a stone peach supported by three toads (symbol of eternal survival). So with the pen and ink, the soul of Hanoi had gone into poetry like red circles in the skies of the spring, when the bombax blossoms come out. Unfortunately the bombax tree planted by the scholar himself (in 1864) had gone now.

In the south of the Lake, there is another little island called the Tortoise Hillock, so named because very old tortoises have been seen emerging from the bottom of the Lake for sun-bathing in the autumn. On the island still stands the little "Thap Rua" (Tortoise Tower), which, a few centuries ago, used to be called "Dieu Ngu Dai" (Fishing Pavilion of the nobles). Although the Tower itself was built by the end of the 19th century, not so nice-looking, it is a relic of par- significance: it had become the symbol of Hanoi, the Hanoians' heart and soul. Once, in the war of resistance against the French colonialists, the Hanoian guerillas built a Tortoise Tower in the midst of the dense jungles to keep alive their memories of Hanoi and vow to liberate their beloved home-city.

For Hanoians, the "Sword Lake" represents their millennia history and their heart and soul, and therefore, no one is allowed to infringe upon the lake and devastate it, with a view to turning it into a little pool with new-fangled alien building destroying the surrounding landscape, like the Golden Hotel, the Shark-Jaw Building, etc.

For quite a few Hanoians, if they fail to go for a walk round the Lake once a day, they feel lost, seemingly on tenterhooks, particularly during the transition of the seasons, with the little changes in the ripple of the lake, the water , the trees and the color of the traditional long dresses of the young Hanoi girls fluttering in the breeze, who have helped create an elegant Hanoi.

(Source: Hanoitourism)