Explore Hanoi

St. Joseph's Cathedral is the Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Hanoi, on a small square west of Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Consecrated in 1886 on the site of the former Báo Thiên Pagoda, the Gothic Revival church has two square towers 31 metres high and a façade modelled on Notre-Dame de Paris. Outside Mass, visitors enter through a side door.

Hoàn Kiếm Lake is a freshwater lake of about 12 hectares in the historic centre of Hanoi. Its name, Lake of the Returned Sword, recalls the legend of Emperor Lê Lợi giving his sword back to a golden turtle. The Turtle Tower stands on an islet in the lake, and the red Thê Húc bridge leads to Ngọc Sơn Temple.

The One Pillar Pagoda is a small Buddhist shrine to the bodhisattva Quan Âm in Hanoi's Ba Đình district, first built by Emperor Lý Thái Tông in 1049. Its wooden hall rests on a single stone pillar rising from a square lotus pond. Blown up in 1954, it was rebuilt in 1955 to its earlier design and belongs to the Diên Hựu pagoda complex.

Trấn Quốc Pagoda is a Buddhist temple on a small island near the south-eastern shore of West Lake in Hanoi, linked to the road by a causeway. Founded in the 6th century beside the Red River, it moved to its present site in 1615. The grounds hold monks' stupas, a bodhi tree given by India's president in 1959 and an 11-storey tower built in 1998.

Long Biên Bridge is a steel cantilever bridge of about 2.4 kilometres across the Red River in Hanoi, built in 1899–1902 by the Paris firm Daydé & Pillé and opened in 1903 as the Paul Doumer Bridge. Bombed several times in 1967 and 1972, it was repaired, and today it carries trains, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians.