VIETNAM - Hanoi’s great river of life

Vietnam net brigde, 25/12/2006

A little more than a decade ago the Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained mired in that picturesque but stagnating past-isolated from global economic and political progress and exploding global tourism, a place where a few visiting businessmen, diplomats, and journalists found it virtually impossible to find a hotel or a restaurant worthy of name.
In the intervening years Hanoi has undergone a metamorphosis. There is a new airport, highways, bridges, high-rise hotels and apartment blocks and sophisticated restaurants. More than four million well-heeled European, American, and Japanese tourists now visit each year. The streets are clogged with autos and tens of thousands of motorcycles spewing clouds of fumes into the fetid sky.

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