Hanoi is very attractive and mysterious thanks to its historical relics, imprints of people, legends, old streets, ancient houses, citadel walls, etc. However, the most typical feature is the urban architecture of ancient streets that shows an elegant civilization and a cultural lifestyle of Hanoians with many generations living together in the same house.
The Old Quarter, including 36 streets and guilds, is a unique architectural complex of tube houses with moss covered roofs and walls. The quarter is bordered by Hang Dau to the north, Hang Bong, Hang Gai, Cau Go and Hang Thung to the south, Tran Nhat Duat and Tran Quang Khai to the east and Phung Hung to the west.
Each street and house was named after the products or the trades of the guilds that dominated there, such as Hang Dao, Hang Luoc, Hang Gai, Hang Thiec, Hang Hom, Hang Bac, Ma May, etc. Here, all activities in the daily life of urban people take place, creating a vigorous vitality and continual development. Under the dynasties of Ly (the 11th century) and Tran (the 13th century), Hanoi's Old Quarter consisted of many guilds. In the early 16th century under the Le Dynasty, Hanoi became Dong Kinh, attracting people nationwide to produce and trade in 36 guilds - the present-day Old Quarter that is an attraction of the thousand-year-old Hanoi.