Landmark
Phố Hàng Mã
P. Hàng Mã, Phố cổ Hà Nội, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội
Century-old paper-votive trade turned toy and lantern bazaar, glowing brightest before the mid-autumn festival.
This guide to Phố Hàng Mã in Hanoi's Old Quarter follows a five-hundred-year-old trade in paper votives, funeral offerings burned for the dead, from paper servants and horses to paper motorbikes and televisions. It traces the street through French colonial renaming, postwar campaigns against ancestor worship, and a 1991 police raid that hauled paper mansions out to burn in the street. Look between the toy stalls for the bundles of gold votive paper still tucked among the lanterns and lion heads.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.