(VOVworld)- Hong Kong’s Smart Travel Asia ranks Hanoi the 6th attractive destination in Asia. Every year, readers of the Smart Travel Asia vote for Asia’s best destinations in such categories as the best resort city, the best shopping city, the best business city, and the best hotels and services. With its 1000-year-history, hospitable people, beautiful landscape, good food and appealing shops, Hanoi meets all the criteria set by Smart Travel Asia. Today Discovery Vietnam takes you shopping in Hanoi’s popular Old Quarter.
Visitors to Hanoi are interested in walking around the old quarter with 36 streets and guilds. Autumn is the best season for wandering around the old quarter, where you can pop into shops or art galleries to see beautiful paintings. The shopping atmosphere is particularly bustling in Hang Gai, Hang Hom, Hang Ma, Hang Bac and Hang Buom streets. The fashion shops here offer a wide range of designs at reasonable prices. Visitors who like silk can visit Hang Gai and its nearby streets where a lot of items made of silk are on offer such as clothes, bags and souvenirs. Along Hang Bac and Hang Hom, visitors can buy silver items including silver chains, bracelets or other types of jewelry of unique design. Thomas, an American visitor says: “I really enjoy shopping in Vietnam. I think it’s easy to buy. I think that people are very nice. I think that furniture is good value, good price. The good point to shopping is that there are many available. I bought flower, I bought picture, I bought some art, I bought silver, I bought clothing. And here the food is very good, I bought lots of food”.
Shops in Hanoi’s old streets offer a wide range of local and imported products including clothes, footwear, bags, hats and scarves. Most tourists want to buy local products and souvenirs such as brocade bags, silk scarves and silk clothes as gifts to bring home. Souvenir shops with handmade products are very attractive to tourists. Thu Huong from Lao Cai says she likes shopping in the old quarter. “
Shops in the old quarter are like a colorful picture. Shops are varied and everything can be found here. The products on offer are catchy meeting customers’ demands. While shopping, I also like popping into lacquer shops and handmade jewelry shops. I’m amazed at all the products here. I bought a chain at a cheap price of 100,000 dong”, said Huong
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Walking around the Old Quarter in Hanoi, tourists can also see florists selling colorful flowers from bicycles and street vendors selling a wide range of seasonal fruits. Natalia, a tourist from Poland says : “We have a lot of very nice things to buy in Vietnam and we love it. We love fruits, they are very delicious and the kinds of fruits are different in Poland. Everything is cheap here. I think it’s nice to shop here. Yes, we love Vietnam”.
The more visitors go around the old streets, the more they learn about the capital city. Each street is associated with a guild that specialized in one type of product. Hang Bo street for example sells garment accessories, Hang Duong street has sugar coated fruits. Silver crafts are offered in Hang Bac street. Wandering around the old quarter, visiting shops, trying the local food and meeting friendly local people, visitors soon understand why Hanoi was voted one of the most attractive destinations in Asia.
Lan Anh