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Hanoi

Capital of VietnamHanoi is in the north of Vietnam, in the Red River Delta. The Red River flows past the city on its way to the Gulf of Tonkin.

Why it's the capital

In 1010 the emperor Lý Thái Tổ moved the capital of Đại Việt here and renamed it Thăng Long, after he said he had seen a dragon ascending the Red River. Later it was the capital of French Indochina from 1902, of North Vietnam from 1954 and of reunified Vietnam from 1976.

Fun facts

  1. Hoàn Kiếm Lake in the city centre means 'Lake of the Returned Sword': legend says Emperor Lê Lợi gave his magic sword back to a golden turtle there.
  2. The Temple of Literature was built in 1070 for Confucius, and in 1076 Vietnam's first university, the Imperial Academy, was set up inside it.
  3. The city got the name Hà Nội in 1831, when the Nguyễn king Minh Mạng renamed it.

Finding it on the globe

Vietnam is a long, thin country. Aim for its wider northern part, a little inland from the Gulf of Tonkin, far from the southern end.

Easy to mix up

Some players tap Ho Chi Minh City, once called Saigon, in the south. It is Vietnam's most populous city and was the capital of South Vietnam, but Hanoi is the capital of the whole country.

Sources: Wikipedia: Hanoi, Wikipedia: Thăng Long, Wikipedia: Hoan Kiem Lake, Wikipedia: Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Wikipedia: Red River (Asia), Wikipedia: Ho Chi Minh City