Cu Da Village

Cu Da lies along the Nhue river south-west of Hanoi and was prosperous in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when its merchants traded into Hanoi and built houses in a mixed style - Vietnamese plans behind French facades with dates, columns and iron balconies, several still carrying the year they were built. The village also has an old communal house and a lane system with the original numbering. What it does now is noodles: mien, the yellow arrowroot vermicelli, made here in quantity and dried on frames along the walls, the riverbank and the roofs, which turns the whole village yellow.

What you actually see

• French-fronted merchant houses - Vietnamese plans behind them, dated.
• A canal village on the Nhue - with its original lane numbering.
• Yellow mien noodles drying - on frames along every surface.
• An old communal house - at the centre of the village.

When to go

Year round; production is heaviest before Tet. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Many old houses are in poor condition and some have been demolished. The village is close to Hanoi's expanding suburbs and under development pressure. Houses are private. There is no visitor infrastructure.

Nearby

Ha Dong is north; the Perfume Pagoda road runs south.