Hoàn Kiếm Lake & Ngọc Sơn Temple

Hoàn Kiếm Lake is the spiritual heart of Hanoi — a small, green lake in the centre of the city whose name means 'Lake of the Returned Sword,' referring to a legend in which a 15th-century Vietnamese king returned a magical sword to a golden turtle in the lake after using it to defeat the Chinese Ming dynasty. The Turtle Tower (Tháp Rùa), a small pavilion on an island in the southern part of the lake, and the Ngọc Sơn Temple (Temple of the Jade Mountain) on an island in the northern part are the two landmarks that give the lake its identity.

Ngọc Sơn Temple, reached by the iconic red-painted Thê Húc Bridge (the 'Sunbeam Bridge'), is an 18th-century Confucian and Buddhist temple dedicated to the scholar Văn Xương and the military hero Trần Hưng Đạo. The temple is small and atmospheric — incense smoke, altar offerings, and the preserved body of a giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei, one of the rarest species on Earth) that was caught in the lake in 1968 and is now displayed in a glass case. The species, which grew up to 2 metres long, was the basis for the sword-returning turtle legend, and the last known individual in Hoàn Kiếm Lake died in 2016.

The lake's shores are Hanoi's most popular public space. Early morning tai chi practitioners, evening joggers, couples on benches, and the weekend pedestrian zone (when the surrounding streets are closed to traffic) create a social atmosphere that is the closest Hanoi gets to a European piazza. The view from the lakeside at sunset — the Turtle Tower silhouetted against a pink sky, the Old Quarter's lights beginning to flicker behind the trees — is one of Vietnam's most romantic urban scenes.