Hanoi: The Division between the South and the North

Saigon and Hanoi are two cities in Vietnam that symbolize the division between the south and the north of the country. Vietnam is a well-known country due to the recent war which the superpower U.S.A got involved in and inspired many Hollywood movies. Our imagination is filled with the images of chemical bombs striking down the civilian population, of traumas American soldiers suffered, of soldiers fighting in green fields and native people resisting. 

A cursory study of the country’s history would show why the people have grown tired of living under the yoke of foreign powers. Vietnam remained under the Chinese rule for a long while and a tourist’s eye can discern the influence in the local architecture, such as Confucius University in Hanoi. Vietnam became a French colony in the 19th century. French Indochina, which then consisted of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, won its independence under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, the communist independence fighter of Vietnam. 

The division between the anti-communist South and the communist North has not come to an end and had a history in the second half of the 20th century that escalated into a bloody war in which the world power U.S.A. too got involved. This history is displayed in the architecture around the city. One also notices even the races differ in the south and the north. These pictures are from Hanoi which won my heart more.