Walking along Hanoi Train Street

This is Hanoi’s ‘train street’, located in the Old Quarter, just a short walk from Hoan Kiem Lake. For the outsider like me, it seems like an extraordinary place to live, but for the few Hanoians that reside on this small stretch of track, it is their home.

During the French colonial period, the North-South railway including Hanoi train station was built.

For many years, the railway runs around the capital quietly mixing with the rhythm of this place. The train streets start from Long Bien station to the end of Le Duan street, Hanoi.

Notably, in the last part of the intersection between Kham Lien street with Le Duan street, there is a residential area surrounded by two tracks creating a unique roadside village in the capital.

Although the whole neighborhood is only about 500 meters long, there are quite a lot of households that live here for many generations. There are children born and raised with rails and trains.

This neighborhood is a melting pot of culture between Hanoian and people from different parts of Vietnam who come to the capital to work and live.

This part of Hanoi also has an impressive architecture with the mixture between the new and the old houses. It paints a beautiful picture with different colors, creating a vintage vibe on every corner of the street.

Hanoi train street has become well-known and attracted many visitors from all over the world daily.