Hanoi

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, on the Red River in the north of the country. Its name means the city inside the rivers, after the bends of the Red River and its branches around it. Hoan Kiem Lake in the center is tied to the legend of a golden turtle that took back a magic sword from the emperor Lê Lợi.

Lý Thái Tổ moved his capital to the site in 1010 and named it Thăng Long, the rising dragon. The Temple of Literature was founded there in the 11th century to honor Confucius and later held the first national university of Vietnam. The Nguyễn dynasty moved the capital to Huế in the early 19th century, and the city took the name Hanoi in the 1830s. It became the capital of French Indochina in the early 20th century, when the French built the opera house and wide tree-lined avenues. Hanoi became the capital of reunified Vietnam in 1976.

Habeco brews Bia Hà Nội, the Hanoi beer, and FPT, a software and telecommunications group, has its headquarters in the city. Vingroup, the group behind VinFast cars and Vinhomes housing, is also based in Hanoi.

The Old Quarter between the lake and the river keeps streets named after the goods once sold on them, such as Hàng Bạc for silver and Hàng Gai for hemp. The One Pillar Pagoda, a small wooden shrine on a single stone column, recalls a lotus rising from a pond. Phở, a soup of rice noodles in beef broth, is the breakfast most closely tied to the city.