Hang Be Street

Hàng Bè is named after rafts, yet standing on it you see no river and no raft. This small street begins where Hàng Mắm meets Hàng Bạc. It runs to the crossroads of Hàng Dầu and Cầu Gỗ, linking the shore of Hoan Kiem Lake with the streets of the Old Quarter farther in. It is about 172 meters long and about 6 meters wide. Eateries and cafés line both sides, full of talk and laughter. The Red River has drawn far back, hidden behind rows of houses.

In the old days, that same corner was a city gate, the Mỹ Lộc gate. Right beside it lay the bank of the Red River. The water flowed right at the foot of an old dike. Rafts came down from the uplands and pulled in there. They carried timber, slender bamboo and thick bamboo, along with rattan, cane and leaves. All of it was what the capital needed to build houses.

When rafts still came to shore, this land belonged to the village of Nam Hoa. The village lay in the canton of Hữu Túc, in the district of Thọ Xương. In the middle of the 19th century, the village was renamed Nam Phố, and the canton became Đông Thọ. The street of today was once a stretch of the old Red River dike. Rafts so often pulled in at the foot of this stretch that people called it Hàng Bè. The market held on the dike became the Hàng Bè market.

Bè is the Vietnamese word for a raft. It is made of tree trunks or bamboo stems lashed tightly into one large floating platform. Here the rafts ended their trip downstream. The bamboo was hauled up the bank for sale, and buyers and sellers formed a market. At first the market met at the head of Hàng Tre Street. Later it moved, little by little, to where Hàng Bè Street is now. So the name of the market became the name of the street.

Of the old streets that people call the 36 streets of Hanoi, most are named after goods once sold there, like silver, sugar or hemp. Hàng Bè is different. Its name comes from its place beside the river, and from the raft itself, the craft that carried goods to the landing.

The landing of those days had more than rafts. Sailboats of Vietnamese merchants called here too, bringing goods from Đàng Trong, the lands of the south. On board were shark fins, prawns, dried fish, fish sauce, dried areca nuts and sugar from Quảng. Big junks belonging to Chinese merchants carried luxuries, such as inscribed boards and couplets. In time, large Chinese trading houses sprang up along the street.

Near the landing there was also a village called Ngũ Hầu. It once lay outside the earthen wall that ringed the capital, close to the bank of the Red River. That capital was Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. To escape the floods, the villagers moved in and settled as guests on the land of Nam Phố. Their communal house, the Ngũ Hầu communal house, still stands at number 29 Hàng Bè.

The communal house honors Cao Tứ. Old tales say he was a hero in the time of Thục An Dương Vương. Legend has it that as early as the reign of Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng, the hero was granted the title of king. Amid the crowded streets, that communal house keeps the story of a village that once had to flee the river.

Then the river began to change its mind. Sand built up. The current shifted slowly to the east, and the riverbed drew far away. A day came when the rafts could no longer reach the foot of the dike. The old dike no longer welcomed rafts, and it became a street.

Under French rule, the street was called Rue des Radeaux, the street of rafts. In 1920, the street was given another French name. Only in 1945 did it get its old name back, Hàng Bè.

When the rafts stopped coming, the street found a new trade. In the 1920s and 1930s, shops selling fresh and dried areca nuts took up nearly half the houses on the street. So for a time, the first stretch was known as Hàng Cau, after the areca. One big areca merchant of the day was the Phúc Lợi house, at number 18. Another was the Thịnh Phát house, at number 4. An old Vietnamese saying goes that a quid of betel is where a conversation begins. Betel is an evergreen vine, and areca is a tall, slender palm whose nut is chewed wrapped in a betel leaf. In those days, a whole stretch of street lived on the areca nut.

In 1940, a bánh gai shop opened its doors. It stood at number 24. Bánh gai is a dark cake of sticky rice and ramie leaves, with a mung bean filling. Number 15 was once the home of Nguyễn Tường Tam. He wrote under the pen name Nhất Linh, and he started the literary group Tự Lực văn đoàn. On a street under 200 meters long, many stories lie behind the doors.

Today, no one here sells fresh or dried areca, or betel leaves and bark. In their place are the eateries and cafés from the start of this story, a short street with a great many dishes.

The old market has not disappeared either. The Hàng Bè market now spreads beyond its own street. It reaches into Gia Ngư and Cầu Gỗ nearby. In recent years, people have jokingly called it the rich people's market. Just before Tết, the market fills with traditional offering foods. Tết is the Lunar New Year festival in Vietnam. There is boiled chicken, and xôi gấc, sticky rice colored bright red with gấc fruit. There are nem rolls, giò chả pork sausage, jellied pork, braised fish and pickled onions. It is enough for a whole feast at the end of the year.

At the head of the street, where Hàng Mắm meets Hàng Bạc, a city gate once stood. Under the pavement lies the old stretch of the Red River dike. Long ago, people bought and sold here around bamboo rafts just landed. Today, in this same spot, people buy and sell around trays of xôi gấc and plates of giò chả for Tết.

The market still meets on the old dike, and the calls of the sellers still ring out.