Poetic West Lake in Hanoi

hanoi is a city endowed with numerous natural lakes. West Lake is the largest freshwater lake of the city With a shore length of 17 km (about 10.6 miles), located on the northwest part of the city. Ho Tay District is named after the lake.

Long ago, the lake was a branch of the Red river but later, as the river changed course, the lake remained a body of water just west of the river. There are many legends associated with West Lake. The most popular is the legend of the golden buffalo. As the story goes, there once was a medicine man who was a giant. He is well known in viet nam for his medicine practice and the king often used him to treat the royal family.

His fame reached China and he was invited to China to treat the king. He was successful where others have failed so the king was going to reward him with great wealth. He refused offerings of gold and only requested that the king give him all the black copper in the king’s vault. The king agreed and the giant left for Vietnam with vast amounts of black copper. In Vietnam, the giant molded a giant bell of black copper. The giant rang the bell and the sound resonated all the way to China. In the king’s vault, there was a golden buffalo.

Upon hearing the sound of the bell, the buffalo came to life (because he thought that his mother was calling him) and charged southward. Upon reaching Ha Noi, the buffalo trampled the land in the area near Red river. Over the years, this area filled with water and became Ho Tay or West Lake. Ho Tay has always been an area for vacationing royalties. When Ha Noiwas still the capital city, the kings from the Ly and Tran dynasty built summer homes along the lake. In the north end of the lake, there are several villages famous for their flowers and fruits plantations. Most famous is Nghi Tam village, the birthplace of Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, one of Vietnam’s premier Poetess.

West lake in different hours in one day

As in the days of Vietnam’s emperors, during the last decade or so, West Lake has once again become Hanoi’s most fashionable address, complete with exclusive residential developments, lakeside clubs, spas and a clutch of luxury hotels. A lakeside walk makes a pleasant excursion with one or two sights to aim for. In the seventeenth century, villagers built a causeway across the lake’s southeast corner, creating a small fishing lake now called Truc Bach and ringed with little cafés.

Thanks to the immense dimension of the lake, Hanoi appears to be a coastal city

Tay Ho is worth a visit just to look at the old trees. You can bike partway around the lake and even see some people swimming in it. A lot of expats live around here and there are so good hidden spots for a meal and glass of wine. In case you wonder which bus to get on, take bus No. 55. west lake is surrounded by some entertainment center such as West Lake waterpark, Tran Quoc pagoda, Quan Thanh temple, Nghi Tam communal house…

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