Hanoi’s Metropole to escort guests through millennium (Vietnam)
|
|
Hanoi’s Metropole to escort guests through millennium (Vietnam)
|
Category: Asia Pacific - Vietnam
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2010-09-13
‘Hanoi 1000’ celebrates 1010 founding of capital and recent UNESCO designation
As Hanoi gears up for a celebration of its 1000th anniversary next month, the landmark Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is set to usher visitors through 1,000 years of the capital’s history, century by century.
In coordination with Exotissimo, a leading inbound tour operator, the excursion begins in the 1000s with a visit to the Temple of Literature, founded in 1070, and concludes in the 1900s with a visit to Ba Dinh Square, where Ho Chi Minh declared the nation’s independence on Sept. 2, 1945.
The three-night, four-day package includes a three-night stay at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, four guided tours and multiple dining opportunities.
“A thousand years ago, when Emperor Ly Thai To spotted a dragon flying over the river, he founded this city as Thăng Long (Ascending Dragon)” said Kai Speth, general manager of the Metropole. “I’m not so sure about that dragon, but there’s no question today that Hanoi’s star is rising.”
The ‘Hanoi 1000’ initiative won additional impetus for development last month after UNESCO put Hanoi’s imperial assets on its World Heritage List. The Thăng Long Royal Citadel is Vietnam’s sixth World Heritage Site, joining Hue, Hoi An, Halong Bay, My Son and Phong Nha.
In a Nov. 2009 Outlook Report, PricewaterhouseCoopers identified Hanoi as the developing world’s fastest growing city.
The Hanoi 1000 tours reference the past not merely through sight, but through taste and sound. Pho, for example, the nation’s flagship dish owes its origins, in part, to the introduction of beef to Vietnam by the Mongols during incursions in the 1200s.
The whimsy of a water puppet show and concert reference the 1100s when Thay (Teacher’s) Pagoda was founded and where water puppetry earned its stripes as a cultural instituion.
“Every one of the past centuries is a remarkable showcase for a significant Vietnamese development,” said George Ehrlich-Adams, general manager of Exotissimo Travel Vietnam. “And with Hanoi 1000, we expect to embed in visitors’ memories a collection of unforgettable references to Vietnam’s past.”
One of Hanoi 1000’s most compelling surveys will investigate the architectural legacy of the colonial French in Vietnam, from the Long Bien Bridge (designed by Gustave Eiffel’s firm) to the History Museum (the country’s foremost example of architecture from the Indochinese School) to the 1901-built Metropole, the country’s most iconic hotel.
Referencing the 1400s, when the city’s Old Quarter emerged from the ruins of Chinese occupation, Hanoi 1000 shepherds visitors through a warren of streets that established themselves as the ’36 Streets,’ with one specific guild doing business on each street.
The three-night, four-day package will be in effect for three months, starting Oct. 1. The cost is US $821 per person, based on double occupancy in the Metropole’s historic old wing. The cost includes guiding services by a professor of history.
|
|
