Hoan Kiem Lake

About this place

A small lake at the edge of Hanoi's Old Quarter, and the city's best-known landmark. Its name, «Lake of the Returned Sword», comes from the legend of King Le Loi, who drove the armies of China's Ming dynasty out of Vietnam in the fifteenth century with a magic sword. As the story goes, he was boating on the lake after his victory when a giant golden turtle rose from the water and took the sword back to the Dragon King who had lent it. In the middle of the lake stands the small Turtle Tower, Thap Rua, on an islet that cannot be reached, yet it is the image Hanoi is known by. At the north end, the red wooden Huc Bridge crosses to Jade Island and the Ngoc Son Temple (its own page). A tree-shaded promenade circles the water and fills at dawn with people doing tai chi and morning exercise. From Friday evening to Sunday night the surrounding streets close to cars and motorbikes, and the area becomes a large pedestrian zone full of families, street performers and food stalls until midnight. There is no ticket and no opening time, and the lake is the natural starting point for a walk into the Old Quarter just north of it. Come early in the morning, before the traffic, or in the evening, when the red bridge is lit.