Hanoi is one of the first localities nationwide to establish the Department of Tourism and launch various kinds of products and services such as the walking space near Sword Lake, Ba Vi ecotourism site, Hanoi emotion programme, craft village tourism, Hanoi memories event, and Hanoi traditional “Ao dai” festival.The city plans to develop the Ba Vi – Suoi Hai tourism site, Son Tay – Ba Vi tourism cluster, and Duong Lam ancient village, as well as domestic and international tours. Director of the municipal Department of Tourism Do Dinh Hong said the capital is developing high-quality and highly competitive tourism products with special focus on culture.
Foreign and local tourists are enjoying folk game on Hanoi's walking street
|
Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Van Tuan stressed the possibility of connecting tourism of Hanoi with other northern localities, suggesting their active coordination to attract visitors, especially international ones.
The tourism sector is defining key tourism sites in the north, including Hanoi, Ha Long (Quang Ninh), and Trang An (Ninh Binh). It will build programmes to connect tours with other localities nationwide and forge connectivity between mangers, travel agencies, and tourist sites to improve services.
Over the past time, Hanoi proactively promoted tourism in key global tourism markets such as Russia, France, and Japan through closely cooperating with foreign diplomatic representative offices and international organisations in the city, and Vietnamese embassies and international tourism agencies abroad.
Lively but not too noisy, Hanoi’s Pedestrian Street is crowded but retains the featured of Sword Lake - the quietness, serenity. Visiting the pedestrian street, young people are looking for the bustle, crowded, while older people still find quiet corners, quiet intervals for nostalgia.
Hanoi Pedestrian Street is deployed from September 1, 2016 and applying from 19h to 24h in weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), that is applied to 16 streets around Hanoi old quarter. To create favorable conditions for residents and visitors, the Hanoi Department of Transport has allocated 78 stops for keeping cars, motorcycles, bicycles with an area of over 17,000 m2, accommodating 87 passenger cars, trucks; 600 cars and more than 2,700 bicycles, motorcycles to serve people to walk around Sword Lake.
Experiencing traditional games on the pedestrian street
|
Visiting Hanoi’s pedestrian street, tourists can also visit Ta Hien Street to sip a few beers with friends or to the old town’s night market to watch the noisiness and weird of the old town, as well as enjoying familiar dishes of Hanoi, buying a small memento for a reasonable price.
The old town’s night market is also a specialty of the city connected with walking street. Night Market is held from 18h to 23h in the evening of Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a length of nearly 3km through old houses, starting from Hang Dao Street to Dong Xuan market gate. The night market makes the old quarter crowded, noisy and more boisterous. Everywhere here also sees buyers, sellers, from jewelry, handicrafts to handmade pretty small electronic devices, home appliances, to the familiar dishes of Hanoi.
No traffic noise, no dust, Hanoi’s Pedestrian Street is warmer in the winter days when witnessing the interference of many colorful cultures since ancient time to the modern time, from east to west. If you are not an extrovert, you can still find a small corner around this neighborhood to watch the tranquil lake, people walking aroun and the streets.
Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said: "We believe that the unique culture of Thang Long (Hanoi’s former name) along with its diverse culinary and artistic features amidst the current lifestyle will meet the needs of healthy cultural activities and entertainment for Hanoians, as well as domestic and foreign tourists."
Chairman Chung confirmed that the trial period for the walking streets around Sword Lake commenced on September 1 from 7pm on Friday to 12am on Monday. In addition to that, to attract tourists, during the pilot period Hanoi also allows hotels of 3-stars and above, restaurants and bars operating in Hoan Kiem District to open to services until 2am over three days each weekend. The city prohibits all entertainment activities after midnight, however, many foreign visitors rated nightspots as "specialties" of Hanoi, therefore, in the near future the city will lift this ban, Chairman Chung affirmed. The removal of "curfew" provisions in Hanoi after midnight has gained consensus from the public as a measure to facilitate Hanoi’s tourism development.
