Somerset Hoa Binh

Attractions:

Old Quarter
Everything spills out onto pavements which double as workshops for stone-carvers and tinsmiths, and as display space for merchandise ranging from pungent therapeutic herbs and fluttering prayer flags to ranks of Remy Martin and shiny-wrapped chocolates. With so much to attract your attention at ground level it's easy to miss the architecture, which reveals fascinating glimpses of the quarter's history starting with the fifteenth-century merchants' house otherwise found only in Hoi An.

Perfume Pagoda
Vietnam's most famous pilgrimage site, the Perfume Pagoda, Chua Huong, hidden in the folds of the Mountain of the Perfumed Traces, and said to be named after spring blossoms that perfume the air. The easiest and most popular way to visit the pagoda is on a day-tour out of Hanoi, or with a hired car and driver for the day.

The One Pillar Pagoda
The One Pillar Pagoda is one of the few monuments of Vietnam dating back to the time of the founding of the first Vietnamese empire, which is independent from China in the 11th century. However, the present pagoda is not the original building. After it has repeatedly been damaged or destroyed in its almost 1,000 years of existence, it was renovated and rebuilt over and over again. The last reconstruction took place in 1955, after the French colonial forces had blown it up before their retreat in 1954.

The Temple of Literature
This pagoda and the surrounding complex have played a prominent role in the history of Vietnamese thinking. Originally it had been built in 1070 in honour of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, whose teachings have influenced Vietnam almost as strongly as they have shaped China. This temple has been for centuries the place where exams for the rank of Mandarin were taken.

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