Turtle Tower

This guide to Turtle Tower on Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi follows an 1886 request by local power broker Nguyen Huu Kim to build a tower honoring the legendary turtle god who lent Le Loi his sword. You'll hear about the quieter plan residents suspected behind that request, and what they did once word got out. It also traces a French addition to the tower decades later, and why locals gave it a mocking nickname before authorities finally took it down in 1945.