Long Bien Bridge

Long Bien Bridge - Memories of Hanoi

- After One Pillar Pagoda and Pen Tower Complex - Ngoc Son Temple, I see that Long Bien Bridge is one of the unique, beautiful and unique images of Hanoi's culture and history. More than a century of loyalty spanning the shore, Long Bien Bridge has been and will be an integral part of Hanoi.

I often wonder, if some Hanoians wake up without seeing the Long Bien Bridge, they would be as shocked as Parisians do not see the Eiffel in the sky or Beijing no longer see Tiananmen on square. For the Hanoians, Long Bien Bridge is not only the first bridge connecting the banks of the Red River, but also an inseparable historical vestiges of the capital during the twentieth century: "Hanoi has Long Bien Bridge / Long just wide north on the Red River / Passenger car free / People who are busy carrying the burden back ... ".

The bridge was inaugurated on this day 112 years ago, February 28, 1902.

The Long Bien Bridge was designed in the style of the keys that Daydé & Pillé applied for the first time to a bridge in Tobiac (Pari) on the Parisian rail line of France. The bridge has a length of 1,862m, consisting of 19 steel beams and a stone path. There is a single railroad track for trains. Both sides of the bridge have a pathway for motorized vehicles and pedestrians.

After nearly 3 years of construction, on February 28, 1902, the bridge was officially inaugurated and named Doumer Bridge. After Ha Noi liberation, the bridge was renamed Long Bien Bridge. Long Bien bridge is beautiful in design, unique in design and construction materials, has become the second largest bridge in the world and most prominent in the Far East at that time.

"The night, the night passing under the bridge, I have a date to come back tomorrow ..." The song by Nguyen Thanh (the poet of Ta Huu Yen) recalled the event of the Capital Regiment surpassing the Long Bien Bridge across the Red River. One night early in 1947 to preserve the force, preparing for the nine-year resistance war ...

"The bridge knows how many times the enemy / No iron bar no bullet bomb ..."

(Xuan Quynh)

Remembering from the bridge reminds us of the days when the sky changed hands, and Hanoi became the loving capital of the whole country; Reminds us of the troopers storming the liberation of the capital. On the autumn of 1954, the Long Bien Bridge witnessed the last French expeditionary troops withdrawn from Hanoi and also from the Long Bien Bridge, the arrogant cannabis and the river, Defeat the destructive war to a Dien Bien Phu earthquake.

But also in those years of fire, Long Bien Bridge was bombed 14 times, there were 9 spans were knocked down and 4 piers were badly damaged, but broken bridge was connected, broken bridge was corrected to Ensure circulation arteries. More than 1.8 kilometers of road bridges never seem to be interrupted, the bridge has never stopped working, so every important shipment still follows this road into the bloody southern battlefield.

Writing about those days, poet Xuan Quynh once said:

Long Bien Bridge - that is the old bridge name

Across the river in old iron and steel

The bridge knows how many times the enemy

No iron bars without bullet holes

The car is still running on a patchwork bridge

Trains, cars have to share the road ...

Experiencing many fluctuations with the wind of the wind and the war, the Long Bien bridge now has only one northern double span, a southern double span plus a double span in the middle of the river to maintain the stature. Original design Broken down bridges have been replaced by semi-perpendicular beams on new piers. But Long Bien Bridge is still there, crossing the river Mother like the green dragon thousand years still pondering the city is changing every day.

Today I saw a hustle Hanoi in the flow of the flow of the new age and more modern, superficial bridges.

For example, Nhat Tan Bridge, Vinh Tuy Bridge, Chuong Duong Bridge and Thanh Tri Bridge. These bridges have made the role of the lifeblood of the Long Bien bridge no longer existed, Long Bien bridge is now only for riders. Motorbikes and trains, but the bridge does not lose its place in the heart of Hanoians: every morning, each carriage carrying vegetables, bonsai ... into the city, workers Arrive at offices, factories, students and students to school. Red River wind blows over the bridge, blows the salty sweat, hard work of daily life.

Long Bien Bridge in the eyes of young people, in my opinion, we think about Log Bien Bride today is bright, beautiful. However, for many of my friends, we just take it as a simple bridge in a windy, familiar with the sports movements of people around the region. People can run on the bridge, stopping on iron bars to perform physical exercises after a stressful work day. The bridge with its own colors: golden yellow color Afternoon, dark gold when the night falls under the yellow light, is the cool yellow color on early morning dawn. Long Bien bridge space is open with high sky, the river deepens the wind, bringing the spices everywhere.

I feel a love, where the little girl blushes "I see the problem with a beautiful smile, a deep blue eye ... tomorrow I will miss my Hanoi!" Love with the bridge full of culture in the heart of the elegant city, where the beginning of love.The Long Bien in the eyes of young people today is very bright, beautiful. With young people passionate about painting, photography. , The bridge is an endless source of inspiration. Long Bien Bridge is sofas, taken from many angles of young people for a moment, under the skillful hand, the bridge is reproduced at hundreds of angles. From the iron bars, the rustling between the wind and rain; Image of the train running slowly on the bridge between the bridge, the lock of love couples ...

In the eyes of young people, Long Bien is also part of the memory, in their childhood. I have read the poetry of the young people, the beloved heart, if one day this bridge lost: "Long Bien disappears I love you! All the Long Bien Bridge and the everyday life of the Hanoians ... Hundred years, that bridge has burdened on its history, it gushed through the wars. Our nation is like an old father buried on a back life. To me, thinking of the bridge is thinking of the flood victims with their eyes crossing the bridge every day. Oh how many feet swept backwards, how many of his body parts that hundred years? Why is that bridge not a Vietnamese heritage?

Experience with volunteering in Long Bien Bridge

The people living in the Long Bien wholesale market, fruit market, the largest agricultural product in the North have formed the popular accommodation for the laborers outside the province along the Red River. And right at the foot of the Long Bien Bridge belongs to residential group No. 2, Phuc Xa Ward, Ba Dinh District, a village has been formed right on the mudflats in the riverbed. Sluggish living, but hundreds of workers here daily spend a great deal of money on living in illegal motels that are mushrooming like this.

That day was a heavy rain in Hanoi, me and the students volunteered to launch motorcycles to Long Bien area.  We was delivering the foods for the project called: Better Hanoi. Below I will tell you a little bit about the project.

Better Hanoi  is a voluntary food aid project for disadvantaged people in Hanoi, under the auspices of CSDS Vietnam.

As a volunteer  of Better Hanoi, we will collect the foods which are still in use in restaurants and supermarket in Vietnam then I will take these foods to deliver to poor people in Long Bien slum.

It is the fact that in Asia many people are wasting foods whereas there are many who do not have enough food to eat.

For example,

We have visited a buffet for international people, there are a lot of food which is left over by the customers. Normally, people will throm these foods away.

It was such a big waste!!!

So we collect that food to deliver to other poor people.

I am giving bread to an old woman in Long Bien slum. 

On the occasion of Mid-Autumn 2014, Hanoi Organized charity event: full moon, full of joy for the purpose of giving gifts and playing with the children and the poor old people in Long Bien accommodation (behind Long Bien wholesale market. This is a neighborhood of the laborers from outside the poor provinces, they come to Hanoi to find livelihood. Their daily work is usually scavenging and scavenging, or working in the Long Bien market. They are also the ones Hanoi has been supporting for over a year. So Hanoi Enough is really looking forward to bring a happy and meaningful Mid-Autumn Festival to the poor.

Here is the details of the Midnight Moon full moon program, the full joy of Hanoi Enough

- Time: Saturday, 06/09/2014, from 18h - 21h

- Expected location: Long Bien accommodation (near Long Bien wholesale market)

- Participants: people living in Long Bien, focusing on children and the elderly.

- Receiving objects: 40+ children in Long Bien, Red river beach, Linh Quang disability center and some elderly people in Long Bien

- Main activities: arts, folk games, breaking Mid-Autumn Festival and giving Trung-tzu presents to the elderly and poor children.

The first impression  for me when I entered that are was it was such a dirty place to live and to grow. How can I believe that there are people actually living in that area.

It is dirty, infected and a lot of flyings!!! Oh, my goodness!!!

Moreover, what amazed me was that the harshest, most bustling huts in Hanoi, such as the neighborhood of this bridge, had such low rents.

 According to the renters said, I was surprised by him as he told me that the cheapest room is less than 5m2, such as her room is 500,000 VND per month. The rest room is about 7-8m2 larger than 800,000 to 1 million per month, not including electricity and water. Electricity here is calculated at 4,000 VND / number. In front of each room is installed a private meter. Water wells pump the pipes into the room. Paying for water, but for comfort. Each time you pump water, you have to bring buckets, pots to stockpile for the day, as well as water, just bathing, cleaning. Knowing that expensive, known to be dirty, know that long will cause illness in the body, but because of living daily living in Long Bien market, the tenants here still have to accept. Bright eyes, running a few steps to go to the market.

Then we met another guy. He just asked us about what we were doing there. His name is Thanh. The owner of this "inn" is Mr. Thanh, about 50 years old. Every night, "the boss" carries a notebook to the motel rooms that collect renters by day. Accommodation price is 13,000 VND / person. Rent a month, regardless of time or not, the first month must pay enough. To save money, usually each room has 3-4 people in common. Area is narrow, want to in the east also no place to add people. Some people live long time in the residential group No.7 Phuc Xa said that he previously heard that he is trading in medical equipment. fall.

Since the 1990s, when the area after the Long Bien market is still absent, Thanh's acquisition of Mr. Dam Van Mao about 100 m2 of agricultural land to transplant. This land is located at the bank of the river, at the end of the drainage now. At one time, Thanh rented another for charcoal. In 1996, he built a fourth-grade house for rent on a family estate that had been open for years. Mr. Thanh also built a motel "to follow" but agricultural land, so the Phuc Xa Ward authorities handle, demolished many times. For a long time, around 2006-2007, drainage sewer was renovated, embankment of the road back to clean, Thanh built more than ten rooms on the land purchased by the Mao and the word.

It pours the land, extends the area of rent to the accretion ponds in the river. Since the flood of history in 1996, this mudflats are more and more widespread every day. The dragon bed in the bed room does not have enough space to stretch. According to the residents here, the mudflats must also have " strategy". Initially, increased planting, forming a pathway. Then set temporary tents, outside canvas, wood, temporary barrier like cattle sheds and poultry. As soon as familiar with the eyes, the secret built solidly inside. Time to turn around in a few years, up to now the area of encroaching mudflats to make Mr. Thanh's motel has reached thousands of square meters. The innkeeper steadily grows like a mushroom. If it is from the edge of the sewer, which is the boundary between the residential area and the river bank, the area of the "encroachment" of the resort has been extended by dozens of meters to the riverbed. There are also hundreds of guest rooms. With such rental rates, each month, the proceeds are not small. The story of the unoccupied and uninhabited neighborhoods has existed and is increasingly developing towards the Red River

I walked into a small street near Long Bien Market, I saw this road is predictable whether the rainy or sunny days still pour sewage and mud. We crossed this filthy passage, along the culverts, to the last point of the gate, which is a place for those who live in the Long Bien market. This hard, hard work, consumes a lot of energy, sadly falls on the majority of rural women outside the province. There are no accurate statistics, but the "main" in Hanoi's two main markets is Long Bien Market and Dong Xuan Market, mostly female.

Neighborhoods of poor workers are often the worst. Still know that, but when you set foot in the neighborhood, after the feeling of anxiety. Looking up at the Long Bien bridge, traffic is busy and busy. Also below this, it seems to be a different "world" ... In the heart of the city, but the lives of the neighbors in the sky. Called a "slum", hearing a bit sorry, but the truth is.

With many young people in Hanoi, they live just 2 km away from this place in the Old Quarter with many international tourists and rich lives, I say so many of my friends do not know. The existence of slums in Vietnam.

People may know about the slum millionaire story, many Vietnamese in it I have known about that story.

I often imagine referring to slums in the Middle East, in South America without knowing that in Hanoi itself there are slums of poor working people.

The labyrinth-like path is darkened and then brightened again. The huts are erected with all kinds of materials, the walls are made of plexiglass, plywood, cardboard, tarpaulins, sacks ... like patches patching patches, not out of the house, nor tent.

Next, we come to visit the Vo Nhat couple in the bank of the Red River. He has a very interesting story of his “ pickup wife” .
I will tell you later in the second part of this article.

 The story of Pick up Wife in Long Bien ( Part 2)

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