Travel Info
The Perfume Pagoda
The pagoda, or rather an accumulation of several pagodas about 60 kilometers southwest of Hanoi, is considered one of the most beautiful places in all of North Vietnam. The pagodas and shrines are in between and even inside various limestone caves. The grounds are a favourite destination for Vietnamese pilgrims.
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
The mausoleum, built from 1973 to 1975 in a style similar to that of the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow, is located at Ba Dinh Square, where Ho Chi Minh publicly declared Vietnam's independence on September 2, 1945. Right after his death on September 3, 1969, Ho Chi Minh's body was embalmed by a team of Soviet experts. Visitors to the mausoleum are expected to behave devoutly.
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 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 original pagoda had been constructed in 1049 under Emperor Ly Thai Tong, after a goddess had appeared in his dreams and allegedly handed a son to him.
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. The exams lasted for 35 days and were extremely difficult. In 1733, for instance, only 8 out of 3,000 candidates passed the exams.
