Vietnam Travel > Travel Special Features > Hai Phong - Portrait of a Port Town

Hai Phong - Portrait of a Port Town

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Just south of the opera house is the Co Dao Market ("Missionary's Market"), along Tran Nhat Duat. Fruit stands, donuts, rice noodles, Chinese parties, fresh jellyfish, grilled squid, and crab spring rolls can be found all down Tran Nhat Duat, which is towered over by an out-of-service mosque, all four corners of which are anchored by four individual towers topped with crescent moons. This area was once a Muslim marketplace, while the former mosque is now used as a publishing house. Its square frame, arched windows, and tear-dropped tower tops impressively blend colonial and Oriental architecture.

Like the city's industry and infrastructure, Hai Phong's architecture also plunges forward into new and noteworthy projects, in the form of houses as well as in larger community buildings. Most notable of all is the Viet Cultural Park, a stadium and commercial center with a capacity to hold 8 to 10 thousand visitors, on the road to Do Son (10 Pham van Dong road). This stunning glass and steel monument arches sharply in the shape of a boat, seeming to float over the flat landscape before arriving at the hilly coast. One of Vietnam's largest and most carefully designed pieces of architecture, the Viet Cultural Park was built in 2003, designed by Hanoi native Nguyen tien Thuan. Mr. Thuan's model was selected from over 50 different designs entered in a competition.

"Thus project was chosen unanimously", writes the selection committee for the Viet Cultural Park. "The image of a boat in a port city leaves a powerful impression. It carries with it the very unique trait that has built the base of Hai Phong's economy, differing it from other cities across the country." Other projects continue to sprout around the city, including the new medical university, restorations of the Opera house, the Bing Bridge, and the Tien Phong bookstore (built in lat 2005), covering 600 m2 of land on Lach Tray Road.

Hai Phong's architectural legacy continues to steer its way into new waters, preserving the treasures of its past while setting the foundations for a promising future.

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