During the French colonial period, Tonkin, or Đàng Ngoài, was the name given to northern Vietnam. Situated in and around the Red River Delta, the word 'Tonkin' is a corruption of Đông Kinh, the name of Vietnam's capital city during the Le Dynasty. When the Nguyen, Vietnam's last imperial dynasty, the Nguyen, renamed the town Hà Nội (meaning ‘between two rivers’) in 1831 and hasn't changed since.
Related Articles:
- 38 Beautiful Illustrations Of Hanoi Street Vendors And Their Melodic Cries
- 20 Beautiful Old Maps Of Hanoi
- 27 Rare Photos Of Hanoi From 120 Years Ago
In 1902, when Hanoi was named the capital of not only Vietnam but all of French Indochina, the city began to develop rapidly. Its infrastructure and economy blossomed, as evidenced by the following pictures from Flickr user manhhai.
The images show two very different sides of the capital at the turn of the 20th century. While the city's nice, clean streets are bustling with flower stalls, markets and cultural events, the surrounding rural areas show the raw, simple beauty of pristine villages in their thatched-roof houses, pagodas, lakes and fields.
Locals fish on a small pond in the Botanical Garden, 1905-1910.
Local women wash horse dung in a pond to collect the undigested grains, 1905-1910.
A procession to ward off the plague, 1905-1910.
Ban Gioc Waterfall, 1905-1910.
A citadel gate in Bac Ninh, 1905-1910.
A pagoda just outside of Hanoi, 1905-1910.
An Annamite horse, 1905-1910.
A village on the outskirts of Hanoi, 1905-1910.
A flower market near Hoan Kiem Lake, 1905-1910.
Market vendors, 1905-1910.
An observation fort for monitoring crops, 1905-1910.
A pagoda in Hanoi, 1905-1910.
The gateway to a Hanoi neighborhood, 1905-1910.
A pagoda in Bac Giang, 1905-1910.
