Ngoc Ha Street

Ngoc Ha Street belongs to Ba Dinh District; it is famous for planting flowers and making Vietnamese herbs. The name Ngoc Ha was assumed the name of a river flowing through the capital’s east and west direction by archeologists when exploring Thang Long imperial city last year. In French domination time, there were young women selling rose, chrysanthemum, violet, carnation, gladiolus, etc planted in Ngoc Ha village alongside the street. Nowadays, planting flowers hasn’t been the main career of citizens living here as before but some households still keep the traditional career, so people still see women trading their man-made flowers in the street. In the crossroad, a number of flower shops have been opened, which also sell flowers from the village. These shops are extremely crowded in the 1st and 15th of each month due to Vietnamese’s tradition expressing their attitude to forefathers on those days. Another famous village in this street is Dai Yen, which has made Vietnamese herbs for almost one thousand years; its history connects closely with Hanoi’s history. It’s a pity that nowadays these two traditional villages have not followed their ancestors’ careers, people cannot see flower or herb gardens as in the last century. In replacement, high buildings and houses set up a busy street always in a rush. However, the capital’s committee has been taking effort to maintain these traditions, so we can be optimistic about Ngoc Ha Street with both modern and traditional characteristics in the future.