10 Best Sights in The Old Quarter, Hanoi

For some in-your-face Vietnamese chaos, venture into Hanoi's lively Old Quarter, home to cheap eats, authentic cuisine, and the bia hoi corner, where fresh beer is less than 50 cents a pint. The hub of this brew haven is at the intersection of Luong Ngoc Quyen and Ta Hien Streets, where you pull up a mini plastic chair and sit to watch Hanoi in action.

Here you can find delicate paper replicas of material possessions made to be burned in tribute to one's ancestors. Expect traditional offerings, like paper money and gold (currency of the afterlife), but also modern objects, such as replica iPhones, laptops, air-conditioning units, and karaoke machines. Hang Ma is also where Hanoians go to buy decorations, so it routinely erupts in the colors of the approaching holiday: red and gold before Tet; orange and black before halloween; and red and green before Christmas.

This lake is linked to the legend of Emperor Le Loi, who is believed to have received a magical sword from the gods, which he in turn used to repel Chinese invaders. Afterward a giant turtle reclaimed the sword for the gods from Le Loi as he boated on Hoan Kiem Lake, which derives its name ("returned sword") from the story. The sword-lifting turtle is commemorated by the lake's distinctive Turtle Tower. Ngoc Son Temple on the island at the lake's north end is a tribute to Vietnam's defeat of Mongolian forces in the 13th century. The temple can be reached by way of a lovely red bridge. History aside, the park serves as an important part of daily life for locals in the Old Quarter and is a pleasant place for people-watching, especially at dawn, or taking a break from exploring the city. Bordering the water are park benches, small cafés, and a 30-minute walking trail that loops the lake.

Once conveniently accessible by riverboat, this market, the oldest and largest in the city, has seen trading with the whole of Southeast Asia. The huge structure was destroyed by a massive fire in 1994. The fire displaced 3,000 workers, caused millions of dollars in damage and losses, and took five human lives, not to mention the lives of thousands of endangered animals. The market reopened in December 1996 and today looks more like a concrete shopping mall, but continues to sell all manner of local and foreign goods. In truth, the standard of what's on offer is variable. Clothes and other miscellanea are of poor quality. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is buzzing and very much local, making this an authentic market experience.

Hang Bac means "Street of Silver," which explains why silversmiths, jewelry shops, and money changers have dominated this strip for centuries. The Dong Cac jewelers' guild was established here in 1428, and it later erected a temple (now gone) in tribute to three 6th-century brothers whose skills, learned from the Chinese, made them the patron saints of Vietnamese jewelry.

The Street of Hemp now sells a variety of goods, including ready-made silk, lovely embroidery, and silver products. With plenty of art galleries, crafts stores, and souvenirs, this is a popular spot for tourists. Many trendy boutiques also line Hang Trong, which runs perpendicular to Hang Gai.

Shops along the Street of Fans sell a stunning selection of religious paraphernalia, including beautiful funeral and festival flags, porcelain Buddhas, and lacquered Chinese poem boards. Giant plane trees shade the street, which is bookended by Berry Temple (Den Dau) and a traditional wooden house honoring Vietnamese soldiers (Nha Tuong Niem Liet Si). Shooting off the street is To Tich, an alley bursting with bright, lacquered water puppets, rattan and bamboo baskets, porcelain and ceramics. If you can pull your attention away from all the eye-grabbing street-level sights, above you'll discover the timeworn facades of several French colonial teahouses.

On the southern edge of the Old Quarter's Street of Rattan stands a Chinese-style house built at the end of the 19th century. A rich dark-wood facade fronts a sparsely decorated interior. Exquisitely carved chairs, bureaus, and tea tables decorate the second floor, where a balcony overlooks a courtyard festooned with Chinese lanterns. A Chinese family that sold traditional medicines on the ground floor originally occupied this house until they resettled in 1954 in southern Vietnam, along with many other Chinese living in the Old Quarter. It's hard to imagine that from 1954 until 1999, when a cooperative venture between the local government and a group of architects from Toulouse, France, turned the house into a museum, five families shared this small space.

On Jade Island in Hoan Kiem Lake, this quiet 18th-century shrine, whose name means "jade mountain," is one of Hanoi's most picturesque temples. This shrine is dedicated to 13th-century military hero Tran Hung Dao, the scholar Van Xuong, and to Nguyen Van Sieu, a Confucian master who assumed responsibility for repairs made to the temple and the surrounding areas in 1864. He helped build both Pen Tower (Thap But), a 30-foot stone structure whose tip resembles a brush, and the nearby rock hollowed in the shape of a peach, known as the Writing Pad (Dai Nghien). To get to the temple, walk through Three-Passage Gate (Tam Quan) and across the Flood of Morning Sunlight Bridge (Can The Huc). The island temple opens onto a small courtyard and in the pagoda's anteroom is a 6-foot-long stuffed tortoise that locals pulled from Hoan Kiem Lake in 1968.

The imposing square towers of this cathedral rise up from a small square near Hoan Kiem Lake on the edge of the Old Quarter. French missionaries built the cathedral in the late 19th century and celebrated the first Mass here on Christmas Day 1886. It feels as though nothing has changed since then—the liturgy has not been modernized since the cathedral was built. The small but beautiful panes of stained glass were created in Paris in 1906. Also of note is the ornate altar, with its high gilded side walls. The government closed down the cathedral in 1975, but when it reopened 10 years later the number of returning devotees was substantial.