Lively Hanoi Walking Streets - Hoan Kiem Lake

Along with famous destinations like Ngoc Son Temple, Hoa Lo prison historical relic site, and Bach Ma Temple, the pedestrian zone around Hoan Kiem Lake in downtown Hanoi has become an attraction that lure throngs of visitors to the capital on the weekends. At present, the Hanoi pedestrian street around Hoan Kiem Lake has been gradually becoming one of the capital's tourist attractions, a place for people to go out, play, and slow down between the roads. 

The pedestrian is so crowded especially during the weekends, and roads surrounding the area are blocked with barricades so that the pedestrians can freely walk around on the streets on Saturday and Sunday. 

According to the Hoan Kiem district People’s Committee, after two years of operation, the pedestrian street has become a magnet for both domestic and foreign visitors, with some 3,000 - 5,000 arrivals during daytime, and 15,000 - 20,000 in evening. 

A variety of cultural, tourism, and service activities are taking along the streets to meet demand for recreation. Those include photo exhibitions, dragon dancing, performances of traditional musical instruments, traditional singing, and calligraphy writing.

Coming to the pedestrian streets, anyone can become an ‘actor’. The city has created spaces for all people to show their talents and creativity. In addition to performances held by relevant agencies, those who have registered to management agencies can perform in the space around the lake. Therefore, both professional and unprofessional individuals as well as bands of different genres, including jazz, classical music, traditional music and pop, select Hoan Kiem Lake as a performance space. This uniqueness has contributed to nurturing the culturalcreativity and passion of arts among many people of different ages.

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Although the street has offered a new sense of tranquility and aroused applause from tourists, not all of the feedback is positive. Parking lots with high fees, illegal street vendors and litter dropping, among others remain formidable challenges for the local authority. However, walking streets have become such an indispensable part in the life of the Vietnamese people, that everywhere at night in the Old Quarter areas, one cannot miss the bustling scene of the pedestrians roaming the streets, families hand in hand, which is something that is unique to Hanoi nightlife and what makes the city so charming. 

Along the streets in the walking street, we can easily see groups of performers with different styles and types of music. From lively Latin American music to light music, young music, orchestral music, traditional art forms such as xam singing, amateurs are occasionally caught. The scene of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder swinging and singing along to the music in a relaxed way in the middle of the street without having to avoid a car is becoming one of the most beautiful images on the streets of Hanoi. Perhaps this is also one of the things that make Hanoi's pedestrian street so attractive to people.

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