Urban growth threatens heritage of Vietnam's capital
HANOI — As booming Vietnam hurls itself into the 21st century, the wrecking ball is taking its toll on the architectural heritage of the capital, long hailed as one of Asia's urban marvels.
Rapid population growth is putting ever more pressure on Hanoi, where old houses, cafes and temples overlook tranquil lakes dotted across the city and French colonial villas still line many leafy boulevards.
Residents worry the city's charm is fast disappearing as cranes rise over Hanoi, bulldozers tear down old houses, and the noise of myriad motorcycles drowns out Hanoi's characteristic neighbourhood street life.
As Vietnam's capital nears its 1,000th birthday in 2010, heritage experts warn that the Red River city is at a crossroads if it wants to avoid the pitfalls that have turned other Asian cities into urban nightmares.
Hanoi's population is set to balloon from three million to five million people in coming years, and experts warn that urban planners must strike a fine balance between modernising the city and preserving its unique character.
"Hanoi is the pearl of Asia," said Edle Tenden, cultural programme coordinator for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). "It's the mix of the many architectural styles and the street life.
"It's that people live on the street, eat on the street, chat to friends, rest and do business on the street," she said. "So you have the urban fabric but also the urban life. It's the whole atmosphere."
"It's the tangible heritage and the intangible heritage, the living heritage and the old myths and stories that go with it."
The soul of Hanoi is its Old Quarter -- a maze of 36 streets, each run by a guild, such as silk or bamboo craftsmen, for the past millennium -- which remains the bustling centre of commerce and Hanoi's tourism industry.
But while many want to preserve the ancient area, the Old Quarter is now a microcosm of Hanoi's challenge: with 15,000 households on three square kilometres (one square mile), it is among the most crowded residential areas in the world.
"Hanoi is growing at a rapid speed," said Tenden. "How to accommodate that and still preserve the heritage in an adequate way is an enormous challenge."
Hanoians are fond of their city, but many are stunned by the pace of change.
Streets that were filled with bicycles in the mid-1980s, when communist Vietnam recovered from war and launched doi moi (renewal) economic reforms, are now choked with mopeds and, increasingly, the cars of the newly rich.
"The economy is growing at over eight percent and with trade opening up under World Trade Organisation (membership) there is going to be an acceleration of investment," said World Bank infrastructure specialist Bill Paterson.
"That will pose its own challenges for the city. They will need to accommodate this growing involvement of the private sector."
A total of 197 new hotels, offices, apartment buildings and other projects worth 918 million dollars have been licensed in booming Hanoi so far this year, according to the city's Department of Planning and Investment.
South Korea's Keangnam group in August broke ground on what will be Vietnam's largest building, a 70-storey hotel-office-apartment complex set to cost one billion dollars and transform the Hanoi skyline by 2010.
Authorities are planning a host of new infrastructure -- satellite towns, three urban rail lines with French and Chinese funding, World Bank-backed ring roads, new highways and five more bridges across the Red River.
Trung Quoc Tran, a Vietnam-born US architect on a recent return visit, was stunned by how much Hanoi had changed and said that, while new infrastructure is badly needed, it has to be planned carefully.
"The infrastructure is old, only built to sustain about 500,000 people, and now it's millions, and more things are being built everyday," he said.
"The leadership and the citizens need to look at a map of their city very realistically. They have to be kind of surgical -- preserving the history by really looking at the old part of town and inserting infrastructure in a way that doesn't damage the city's structure."
Hanoi has done much in the past to preserve its heritage -- such as limiting building heights around its landmark Hoan Kiem lake -- but many worry that urban planning is still too haphazard, uncoordinated and secretive.
"Hanoi is working hard on a new masterplan, which includes spreading the residential areas further around the city and preserving the core heritage areas," said Tenden of UNESCO.
"But of course it's always a challenge implementing such plans under such pressures. It will take strong political will and vision to see it through."
The World Bank's Paterson warned that "often there is not much coordination between agencies in different phases of the planning cycle, and so a lot of inefficiencies can creep in.
"Importantly, they will need to have more public participation and consultation. Much of the planning process has been hampered by a very centralised and top-down approach."
He warned that "one of the risks that the city could face in trying to keep up with this rapid pace of growth is that they could just take unilateral decisions. They could demolish whole areas, they could charge ahead with plans without adequate consultation and taking into account different views."
Hanoians have rarely been asked about how their city should change -- but many are up in arms over a new plan to allow private developers to turn the city's largest public green space into a Disneyland-style amusement park.
Under the blueprint, fairground rides, a 3D cinema, restaurants and carparks would be built in Thong Nhat (Reunification) Park, formerly known as Lenin Park, where people now do morning exercises and families stroll around a lake.
"Once the project has started, the park will become a tremendous construction site, stifling one of the city's green lungs," Ha Dinh Duc, of the Vietnam Nature and Environment Protection Association told the Vietnam News.
Reflecting a widespread view, the paper's commentator Trung Hieu wrote the project "would not only deprive the city of another breathing space away from the pollution but also take away a piece of the capital's cultural heritage."
Agence France Presse - September 17, 2007.
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