Hanoi, Vietnam

Flying Singapore Airlines I travelled to Hanoi in November 2007 to experience a booming developing country with strong culture that has survived years of French colonialism, American war and Russian & Chinese communism and is now heading forward for prosperity and Western style culture.
Happily flying Singapore airlines from ZRH-SIN-HAN:

clouds over Zurich airport in late automn

koi fishes at Singapore airport help relax

In the center of Hanoi, lake Hoan Kiem provides provides calm and rest. In the middle of the northern part, the Ngoc Son temple is a magnet for tourists that try to escape the busy streets of the Old Town.

Ngoc Son temple

bridge over Hoan Kiem lake to Ngoc Son

this is shoe street	offerings at 102 Pho Hang Bac hidden temple

dancing at 102 temple	sales women in the streets

Hanoi located along the banks of the Red River (Song Hong) was first inhabited in the Stone Age. Emperor Ly Thai To made it the capital in AD 1010 naming it Thang Long (City of Soaring Dragon). The Nguyen emperors moved the capital to Hue in 1802. The name Hanoi (City in a Bend of the River) was only given by Emperor Tu Duc in 1831. In French Indochina Hanoi became capital again in 1902. Later it became capital of North Vietnam, and at last the capital of the reunified state.