Hanoi- Where to visit?

1. TEMPLE OF LITERATURE

This complex contains the temple built in 1070 and the first university of Vietnam built in 1076.
to worship Confucius and also to be a quiet place for the crown princes studying. The temples
architecture is divided in to five courtyards, it helps you separate yourself and cool down your
soul whist walking deep inside the temple. Number 5 in Asian culture is a sacred number with
various layers of meanings. Especially, when you pass the Main Gate, it will come the Great
Middle Gate with two carps above its roof. This symbolizes for the hard way of students who
want to be mandarin of
the country. According to an old story, when carps want to change
themselves to dragons, they have to pass an arch- shaped rock waterfall
during the violent tide. Its also similar to students who succeeded in passing through the
examinations while this little jar stands for the holy knowledge. The two side gates names are
Virtue (Thnh c) and Talent (t Ti). Since the ancient time, theyve been considered to be
most important qualities of a successful students in our education system.
Next stands The Khue Van Cac (Pavillion of Constellation of Literature). Now we use this
pavilion as the symbol of Hanoi. You can see it on every street signs.

Next is turtle stele on which names of Doctors were engraved

2. HO CHI MINH COMPLEX

This is where Ho Chi Minhs body is preserved. He is always considered as our Great Father,
who dedicated his life for the country liberalization with a great deal of sacrifices and
sufferings.
Ho Chi Minh granite mausoleum modeled after Lenins Tomb in Moscow. But the architecture
was careful designed to reflect Vietnamese culture and lifestyle.
- The first step of building was far more difficult than everyones expectation; they found its
almost impossible to drive in a stake for foundation. Finally, after a fully survey, they found out
that the mausoleum were building on the foundation Western gate of the ancient capital citadel,
which had some huge rocks under the earth. They have to set off a couple of mines to break the
rocks first.
- It was built with contribution from all over the country.
+ Every province send their own resources or product to build this mausoleum:
marble, red plum marble, gold, tile, and even trees to decorate the
mausoleum surrounding
+ Every people living in Hanoi had at least one day volunteer working at the mausoleum
construction site

3. HOA LO PRISON

The formal name is Central Prison built by French Governor. It was originally location of a
village famous for earthen stove, but when the prison was ordered to build, the villagers had to
move out. So it was renamed as the village name as a memorial.
Prison has rooms for criminal prisoners, cells and cachots for
political prisoners, kitchen, yard.
- There are 2 parts of the prison: the outer area and the inner area
The outer area: consist of a Secretary Office, guards camp, sections for

European prisoners and woman ones, healthcare centre and prisoner

kitchen (this is where youre standing after the movement in 1993, it
was turned into the prison museum)
The inner area: consist of 9 separated sections, built with doors made of
tole and iron and windows made of iron bars and nets. Detention rooms
were firmly built to be narrow, dark and dirty whist death rows were
built with cells where the leaders of resistance and hunger strikes in
the prison were punished.

In the original diagram, the prisons capacity would be 500 prisoners. Actually, the number of
prisoners was much bigger. Under the French domination, it grew from 615 in 1913 to 2,000 in

1953. Some detention rooms were so crowded that the prisoners had to request to take the
weaker ones out so that they were not choked