Hanoi's old quarter gets younger each day

One of the biggest problems facing Hanoi’s old quarter is that it isn’t very old. And each day, it gets younger. This image gives you a view into the heart of the old quarter from a rooftop nearby Hoan Kiem Lake. There’s very little in sight that dates back more than a decade or two. At street level things are better. There are traces of an old town and there’s still a vibrant street life that is little changed. But traces of the old are becoming more and more hard to find. The oft repeated tourism irony is that the hotel industry, in its quest to give tourists a taste of the old quarter, has been a major player in its destruction. One of the most troubling recent developments has been the “renovation” of centuries-old temples and pagodas - structures that pre-date the French colonial era buildings that are the familiar “old” look of the area. This usually means a complete demolition and rebuild with a handful of original items finding their way back into the shiny new replacements. These demolitions were going on before my eyes last week. The only good news is that they have been rebuilt as temples, and not as hotels or offices. Ba Da Pagoda, once a wonderfully atmospheric retreat of calm on Nha Tho St, with deep roots in Hanoi’s past, has been renovated so comprehensively that it reminds me of temples and pagodas back in Sydney - where they’re built anew by nostalgic Vietnamese and Chinese communities.