1. Co Loa (now in the suburbs of Hanoi) had been set up since the 3rd century BC. This is a large rampart monument, which had played a role as the kingdom of Au Lac of An Duong Vuong and existed for more than 1000 years before the dynasty of King Ly Thai To.
Hoa Lu had become the capital of the ancient Vietnam since 968. During nearly half of a century, two royal dynasties Dinh and Tien Le had set up the capital here (in the territory of present Ninh Binh province). Hoa Lu has a terrain full of obstacles and difficult of access, its space is narrow. Therefore, on the early spring of 1010, the King Ly Thai To – the founder of the Ly dynasty to replace two royal dynasties Dinh and Tien Le and open a new development period of the history had decided to write one edict consulting courtess about transferring the capital from Hoa Lu to Dai La Citadel, where the Duong dynasty had set up the ancient Vietnam ruling apparatus since the 7th century (in the centre of the present Hanoi). This historic writing was called “Edict on the transfer of the Capital” afterwards. It was written in Hoa Lu, paving the way for the transfer of the Capital from Hoa Lu to Dai La on the early autumn of the same year. Legend has it that when the king’s boat just came to Dai La Citadel, there was a good omen, i.e the golden dragon appeared, on that occasion, the king changed Dai La into Thang Long (which means that the dragon appears).
2. The Tran dynasty had officially replaced the Ly dynasty since early 1226. Over 175 ruling years, the Tran dynasty had continued to use Thang Long Citadel that had been used as the kingdom of the country from the Ly dynasty. By the end of 14th century, the Tran had weakened and had been replaced with the Ho dynasty since 1400. This royal dynasty transferred the capital to the citadel built in 1397, called Tay Do (in Thanh Hoa province); Thang Long was called “Dong Do” (the city in the East). By the end of 1427, the Minh army had been defeated by the Lam Son insurgent army led by Le Loi and had had to retreat the troops back. In early 1428, Le Loi (viz Le Thai To) officially liberated Dong Quan; Dong Quan was renamed “Dong Kinh” (the capital in the East) in 1430.
3. Since 1954, after the event “Capital Liberation”, Hanoi had experienced many times of adjustment of the administrative border. It was expanded in 1961 and 1978 and narrowed in 1991.
On May 29, 2008, the twelfth National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam adopted the Resolution on Hanoi Border Expansion once again. According to this Resolution, the expanded Hanoi has an area of over 3,300 km2 and a population of 6 million people. This Decision has become effect from August 1, 2008.
4. “The Hanoi ancient city” was listed as “the National-level historic monument” by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 2004.
According to this Decision, it is an urban space, nearly like “balanced trapezoid”, with an area of 100 ha, in the East of the old Thang Long royal citadel.
The land area and people – specific characteristics of Hanoi by ages – had had the formation process for a long time, right when the King Ly Thai To set up the capital in Thang Long (1010), even from the period of ‘Tien Thang Long” (before the 10th century).
That is because this has been an urban economic centre of the whole Thang Long-Hanoi capital city-capital region for thousands of years, also a main living place of townspeople and common people of the leading city-hall.
As a result, the policy of preparing the Documents to be submitted to UNESCO recognizing “the Hanoi ancient city” as the World Cultural Heritage has been worked out, which the listing of the National-level historic monument” in 2004 was an action of such preparation. For many reasons, it has not been completed until now.
Van Mieu (Temple of Literature)-Quoc Tu Giam (Imperial Academy) was built in 1070, a complex of leading diverse and abundant historic-cultural vestiges of Hanoi, in the South of the Thang Long royal citadel. It consists of two main vestiges; Van Mieu worships Khong Tu, philosophers of the Confucianism, the deputy headmaster of Quoc Tu Giam – Chu Van An-the typical teacher of admirable religious and moral knowledge of the Vietnamese educational sector; Quoc Tu Giam was the first high-ranking university of Vietnam with over 700 years of operation and thousands of talents trained for the country. There is a policy of putting Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam into the nominated list of “World Cultural Heritages”. However, for many reasons, like “the Hanoi ancient city”, the Documents of this historical and cultural vestige has not been completed yet until now.
The vestige region of Thang Long Royal Citadel Centre received many interests and praises in the period of preparing to commemorate the 1000-year Thang Long-Hanoi (in 1999), especially when archeological evidences appeared at No.18, Hoang Dieu (in 2002). It becomes a leading important historic-cultural vestige region of Hanoi and Vietnam. As a result, the Center for Hanoi Ancient Citadel-Co Loa Vestige Region Preservation coordinated with the research agencies, scientists, international experts, etc to develop the preparation of ‘World Cultural Heritage” nominating documents.
To start the work of research and preparation of scientific documents, the Center for Hanoi Ancient Citadel-Co Loa Vestige Region Preservation held the seminar to consult the members of the Scientific Consulting Council for approving the name, protection scope and list of vestiges proposed to be ranked as “National Vestige” and ‘World Cultural Heritage”. The Hanoi-Thang Long Royal Citadel Center consists of the Hanoi Ancient City vestige and the archeological vestige at No.18, Hoang Dieu. In December, 2007, the preparation of documents of the Hanoi-Thang Long Royal Citadel Center was completed and submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam to decide the ranking of national-level historic monuments and art architecture.
In 2008, with assistance of UNESCO, the Île-de-France Council (the Repulic of France) and the Vietnam-Japan Expert Committee organized over 10 delegations of international experts to Vietnam to provide technical assistance for preparing the World Cultural Heritage” nominating documents of the Hanoi-Thang Long Royal Citadel Center . As for the Vietnamese side, the National Cultural Heritage Council, Vietnam History Science Association, Vietnam’s UNESCO National Committee, especially the Cultural Heritage Bureau, the Archaeological Research Institute, the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences…appointed experts providing professional assistance for such document preparation.
The written Documents submitting to UNESCO had experienced drafting and modification for over 10 times. They had been officially delivered to the UNESCO headquarter in Paris (the Republic of France) and received by January 19, 2009.
5. Hanoi has approached the Buddhism since the centuries in the early Christian era. The establishment of practicing the Buddhism’s religion is pagodas. At present, Hanoi has thousands of pagodas. The pagoda with the most long-standing building age names Tran Quoc. At the beginning, in the 6th century, it named Khai Quoc (Developing the country); Legend has it that it was allowed to be built by the King Ly Nam De. By the 15th century (the age of the King Le Thanh Tong), the pagoda was renamed “An Quoc” (making the country peaceful). It was renamed “Tran Quoc” (defending the country) in 1628. The pagoda’s beauty has been praised by famous scholars in different ages, especially after the pagoda has been removed to the “Gold-fish” island (now known as the peninsula) on the West lake like now. Over the historic periods, the pagoda has been incessantly restored, embellished and always kept the charms of the imperial city, because it is a combination of the sacred and ancient beauty and nice space of natural landscape of West Lake. In 1962, Tran Quoc pagoda was recognized as the National-level cultural and historic vestige.
Quan Su pagoda was born later than Tran Quoc pagoda. It originated from one religious ceremony celebration place for “Envoys” (foreign diplomatic delegations), so it was named “Quan Su” (about the 15th century). This pagoda witnessed many important activities of the Vietnamese Buddhism”, including the event that it became the head quarter of “Bac Ky Church” in the previous mid-century. Since the present mid-century, it has been a central establishment of the unification of Buddhist organizations all over the country and the integration of the Vietnamese Buddhism into the world Buddhism.
The One-Pillar Pagoda-bearing the name of one tower on one pillar, representing the lotus stem-one component of the pagoda-tower complex, was born from one idea of lasting the life expectancy for the King Ly Thai Tong on the occasion of his dream (in 1049, the king dreamt that he met the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who handed him a baby son while seated on a lotus flower. As a result, its original name is Dien Huu (lasting the life expectancy) pagoda. Its present architecture is a reduction of one ancient pagoda-tower complex, which was described in the epitaph with the date of 1121 (erected at Long Doi pagoda, Ha Nam province) that it had a very large size and a splendid beauty.
6. Hanoi, in practice, selected and decided to be the Capital of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was founded from the 1945 August Revolution and the “Independence Oath” ceremony on September 2nd, 1945 (called the National Day festival afterwards). However, legally, Hanoi was just officially approved to be the Capital of Vietnam by the 2nd session of course I of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with the first Constitution adopted by the National Assembly on November 9th, 1946. The 1976 session of the National Assembling – declaring the reunification of Vietnam and foundling the Socialist Republic of Vietnam-only reaffirmed and decided officially Hanoi had became the Capital of Vietnam since 1946.
7. The organization of the Great Festival commemorating the 1000-year Thang Long-Hanoi in October 2010 is to aim at:
- Expressing the sentiment and moral standards of the Vietnamese’s gratefulness to forefathers who founded the country and the Capital like now;
- Encouraging and educating the tradition of country founding and defense of the whole nation and Hanoi Capital;
- Introducing Hanoi in particular and Vietnam in general to the international friends.

Therefore, after the Great Festival, it is necessary to:
- Speeding up the Socio-economic Development Program, building Hanoi people to become more civilized and modern; building the advanced culture bearing the Vietnamese character;
- Further strengthening and renovating the career of building and protecting the Capital firmly, mobilizing all resources; speeding up the completion of cultural, social and economic development goals, making the city become a model of the whole country;
- Carrying out the new expanded city construction planning to the utmost;
- Upgrading cultural works, preserving and bringing into play the use of vestiges, further intensifying the artistic and literary creativeness…