Hoan Kiem Lake – the core of Hanoi!

A beautiful basket of flowers inside Hanoi, a blue lake as a mirror, a place of love, etc. are converging in Hoan Kiem –Hanoi core!

The legend
The story has it that King Le Loi came across a bright metal bar when he visited his friend. It turned out that his friend caught in a bar in his efforts to fish. King asked for the bar, take it home and molded it into a sword. All of a sudden, there are two letters on the sword “Heavenly” (harmony with heaven).
Le Loi then understand that the sword was a gift from heaven. He used it to fight against the war with a neighboring country. In early 1428, after peace prevails, on one of his trips to the Corps (now Hoan Kiem) Lake, had a turtle floats on water and shouted: “Give me back the sword for Dragon King “. No hesitation, the king threw the sword lake. The turtle sword and dive into the water. Since then, Corps became the Hoan Kiem Lake.

On the lake

The lake is not only special in its history. Watercolor of Hoan Kiem Lake is not often found in other lakes elsewhere in the country: green, with dark or light depending on the reflection of the sky. The lake is full of turtle, which is second to none found in lake Vietnam. If you are lucky, you’ll catch the eye of the giant creature rising out of the water. And because the turtle is considered a sacred animal in the culture of Vietnam (with the dragon, phoenix and unicorn), Hoan Kiem lake later became a mecca that nourish the turtle.

Before and even after a major expansion of Hanoi in 2009, Hoan Kiem Lake is still the pride of all the people of Hanoi and the center for any measure distances. Today, it is still a gathering place yet Hanoi can live too far away to calculate their distance to the lake. However, when you walk by the way, you’ll be able to witness the pace of life in this special city.

Activities
If you can wake up early in the morning, at about 5 am, you will see lines and lines of oldies and teenagers do anything from yoga to tai-chi for aerobics (Read our Blog in the early morning exercises in Hanoi). It seems that the whole city has been running for exercise in the morning. They work in groups or themselves, with or without equipment. During one of the meetings of high-profiled in Hanoi, an Australian prime minister also participated in the first run around the lake.
In the afternoon until the end of the South, you can see a matrix of motorcycles twists along the lake. Mix in a gang of “cyclo” – the carrier tricycle celebrities that take tourists with cameras around handy. To end where the old neighborhood located north, a line of clothing and footwear will fascinate you full color, with the smell of trees and coffee.
When the concert ended, you can see couples holding hands walking along the lake edge, trying to breathe in the summer night breeze or warm against the winter cold. If you have the time and really want to observe the life of Hanoi, sat down on one of the stone benches, watching and have a good talk with some local friends through an ice cream cone.

How to get there
Hoan Kiem Lake is centrally located and minutes walk from the Old Quarter of Hanoi, where most of the hotels collection. From Noi Bai International Airport, it takes about 40 minutes to get here. If you’re in the West Lake area, just take Yen Phu Road to reach the old town and go east to Hoan Kiem Lake.