From Hanoi's old town, cross the Red River (Song Hong) and it's just about 3 km. Cross a single bridge and the din of high-rise buildings vanishes as if it were a lie, and the lanes of a thousand-year-old farming village appear. This old village called B\u1eafc Bi\u00ean has no big tourism billboards or rows of souvenir shops. Even so, Western travelers seeking a quiet spot off guidebooks' standard routes have gradually begun visiting by word of mouth. When you're a little tired of the old town's crowds on your \"next trip\" to Vietnam, it's a place worth knowing about for Japanese travelers too, as a destination to venture to for just half a day.<\/p>\n
What Vietnam's Tuoi Tre newspaper reported is the face of Bac Bien, a village that keeps over a thousand years of history despite being as close as about 3 km from Hanoi's old town. The article introduces how, even though it isn't grandly promoted as a tourist site, Western travelers are strongly drawn to the village's rustic lanes and riverside life.<\/p>\n
Bac Bien is located on the left bank (ta ngan) of the Red River and, by administrative division, belongs to the B\u1ed3 \u0110\u1ec1 district of Hanoi. It's on the opposite bank right across a bridge from the old town\u2014on the map, \"right next to the city center.\" Yet because a single river separates it, the wave of urban development has had trouble reaching it, and the old form of the settlement has been preserved as is. The phrasing \"a hidden hamlet in the middle of the city\" fits its location well.<\/p>\n
Bac Bien's origins go back to 1010. When Emperor Ly Thai To of the Ly dynasty moved the capital to Thang Long (present-day Hanoi), the people living in An X\u00e1 (An Xa) are said locally to have moved to this land along the Red River. The village's name then shifted to C\u01a1 X\u00e1 (Co Xa) and Ph\u00fac X\u00e1 (Phuc Xa), before settling on the present-day Bac Bien. The history of adaptation\u2014surviving by the river while facing repeated floods\u2014is inscribed in the changes of the place name.<\/p>\n
Another thing indispensable in talking about this village is its connection to the 11th-century famed general L\u00fd Th\u01b0\u1eddng Ki\u1ec7t (Ly Thuong Kiet, 1019\u20131105). Said to be a place tied to this hero, known for the war against the Song, the village retains shrines and temples honoring his name. What's distinctive is that, rather than facilities developed as tourism resources, faith spaces still serving as places of daily life where residents offer prayers convey the thousand-year continuity intact.<\/p>\n
At the cultural core of Bac Bien is an old bronze bell passed down at the village temple. On February 3, 2026, this bell was formally certified as a Vietnamese national treasure (B\u1ea3o v\u1eadt Qu\u1ed1c gia \/ national treasure). Called the \"An Xa Bell (Chu\u00f4ng An X\u00e1),\" multiple Vietnamese reports convey the fact of the certification and its provenance.<\/p>\n