Dong Xuan Market

On a morning in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, the walk north along Hàng Đào Street is full of small sounds. Bicycle horns slip between the stalls of snacks. The smell of cold bún ốc, noodles with snails, rises from an alley behind. At the end of the street a great front appears, with three arched doorways against the afternoon sky, like an old gate. This is Đồng Xuân Market.

Two Hanoi newspapers cite local records. They say that after taking Hanoi, the French filled in a stretch of the Tô Lịch River and joined two markets, Bạch Mã and Cầu Đông. The new market stood beside the Đồng Xuân communal house. The work was finished about 1890. The front had five arched doorways and five halls, each 52 meters long and 19 meters tall. The frame was iron under a metal roof, with triangular vents punched with holes like a honeycomb. This was French industrial building of the late 19th century. It did not hide its structure but put it on show.

In the early 20th century, the Long Biên Bridge opened to traffic, and a railway joined Hanoi to Hải Phòng. The market became the biggest trading hub in Hanoi. Goods poured in by river, rail and road. A Hanoi newspaper called it "once the most thriving market in Bắc Kỳ." Bắc Kỳ was the name then used for northern Vietnam.

In the winter of 1946, when war broke out, the market became the northern stronghold of Liên khu Một, the interzone that defended Hanoi. A Hanoi newspaper records that the biggest battle at the market came on February 14, 1947. It fell within 60 days and nights when soldiers and civilians held the streets. The self-defense militia and fighters of the Vệ quốc đoàn faced infantry and armored vehicles.

To remember this, a memorial called "Hanoi in the Winter of 1946" was put up on the northwest side of the market in 2004. It is 5.7 meters tall and 4.4 meters wide. A relief shows a fighter carrying a three-pronged bomb and charging at a tank. It is a moment held still in a market where people still buy and sell every day.

On the night of July 14, 1994, a fire broke out and burned until morning. A Hanoi newspaper records it as the biggest market fire in Hanoi, with almost every stall burned. The market was then rebuilt with three floors. Of the five old arched doorways, only three were kept in the front.

Today the three main floors sell cloth, clothing, household goods and dried foods. Behind them lies the Bắc Qua area, which a Hanoi newspaper describes as a long alley of about 200 meters with dozens of old eateries. They serve bún ốc, bún riêu, bánh tôm, bánh cuốn, nem rán and chè. Bún riêu is a soup of rice noodles. Chè is a Vietnamese sweet soup.

On weekend evenings, the streets from Hoan Kiem Lake up to the market become a walking night market. They are Hàng Đào and Hàng Ngang. Hàng Đường is the third. Yellow lamps glow, and stall follows stall.

A French market built about 1890, a street battle in the winter of 1946, a fire in 1994, and three old arches still standing. Đồng Xuân Market is a living memory of Hanoi, where the past and today share one roof.