ASIA / PACIFIC
March 3, 2014
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
In Vietnam’s capital, old town braces for makeover
DENIZENS DISPLACED. A man walks by Huong Nghia Temple in
the heart of the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam. With property values high,
the neighborhood could change dramatically in the coming years as simi-
lar ones already have in Singapore, Shanghai, and many other cities. Au-
thorities want to begin gentrifying the Old Quarter by relocating 6,200
households between 2014 and 2020. New construction is likely a few
years away, but a few hundred residents already have been relocated.
(AP Photo/Mike Ives)
By Mike Ives
The Associated Press
ANOI, Vietnam — Tourists, hawkers, and
motorcyclists rub shoulders every morning in the
congested alleyways of Hanoi’s low-rise Old
Quarter, which seems generations away from the office
towers and electronics megastores springing up in other
parts of the capital. The quarter’s street grid, laid out in
the 15th century, is still dominated by dilapidated shops
selling everything from brass gongs to bamboo
scaffolding.
It is now among Asia’s best-preserved urban hubs of
traditional commerce — thanks largely to decades of
inattention. The 82-hectare (203-acre) downtown area is
crammed with Buddhist temples, pagodas, and French
colonial shophouses, whose original tiles and peeling
yellow paint have become a draw for foreign visitors.
But with property values high, the neighborhood could
change dramatically in the coming years as similar ones
already have in Singapore, Shanghai, and many other
cities. Authorities want to begin gentrifying the Old
Quarter by relocating 6,200 households between this year
and 2020. New construction is likely a few years away, but
some residents already have been relocated.
Some of them are nervous, though not necessarily over
lost history. They worry about being exiled to the city’s
dusty margins, and of being forced to accept a bad deal
from a Communist government that has generated public
discontent across Vietnam by forcing people off their land
with compensation far below market rates.
Pham Dinh Tranh, a retired jeweler in the Old Quarter,
has watched many of the traditional jewelry workshops of
Silver Street slowly morph into cafés and souvenir shops.
The 82-year-old wouldn’t mind a change of scene: The
Silver Street home he shares with his extended family is
cramped and the roof leaks. But he said Hanoi officials
will need to make a convincing case for relocation.
“We’re willing to go, but not if they take this property
and resell it for profit,” Tranh said.
Vu Thi Hong, an official with the Hanoi government’s
Old Quarter Housing Relocation Project, said the main
goal of the planned relocations is to reduce population
density while preserving cultural heritage. With about
66,000 people, the quarter has a population density of 823
people per hectare (2.5 acres) — nearly eight times that of
New York City.
One Silver Street temple — formerly occupied by
long-term squatters — has been refurbished and opened
H
to the public, with assistance from architectural
consultants from the French city of Toulouse.
During an interview at the temple, Hong said
compensation for relocations is paid at market rates
determined by the government. City planners have not
yet decided what will be constructed once current
residents are relocated, she added, but new buildings
won’t exceed three stories.
She said a few hundred Old Quarter residents have
been moved in the last decade from weathered temples
and pagodas, and authorities plan to build an apartment
complex on Hanoi’s outskirts to house thousands of
others.
“Most of those who have already been moved say they
have a better life now,” Hong said, adding that the
government pays up to 81 million dong ($4,000) per
square meter at streetfront properties.
In Hanoi’s real-estate market, the average transaction
price at Old Quarter properties is currently between
$12,500 and $15,000 per square meter, according to
Nguyen Son, a property agent in Hanoi. That exceeds
the average price of $9,337 per square meter paid at
luxury residential properties across Shanghai, as
calculated last year by the London-based consultancy
Knight Frank.
Pham Ba Bao, who was relocated from Silver Street in
2010, is not entirely satisfied with his new situation.
The retired bicycle maker used to live in the temple that
has since been refurbished. He said he received 900
million dong ($42,300) and later purchased an apartment
about seven miles away for 474 million dong ($22,278).
“We’re happy with this apartment, but we can’t make a
living,” Bao said recently at his new place, down the street
from some gasoline storage tanks.
He said he used to earn 200,000 ($9.50) to 300,000 ($14)
per day selling tea outside the temple, but foot traffic in
his new location is minimal. He now survives mainly on
the 3 million dong ($141) per month his daughter-in-law
earns as a hairdresser.
Scholars say vendors and artisans were among the first
residents of the Old Quarter’s 36 streets. When some
traders fled to the former U.S.-backed South Vietnam in
the 1950s, the north’s Communist government seized
their shophouses and divided them into apartments.
Romain Orfeuvre, an architect from Toulouse who
works in Hanoi, said the Old Quarter resisted change
decades ago because of stunted economic development
during Vietnam’s wars against France and the United
States, and more recently because authorities have been
reluctant to evict squatters.
Hoang Thi Tao, who runs a newspaper stand near the
Old Quarter, is cautiously optimistic about the impending
changes.
“The project will help to make the Old Quarter prettier,
improve its residents’ living standards, and lure more
foreign tourists,” Tao said. “But it’ll also require a lot of
resources and determination on the government’s part.
They’ll need to give big compensation offers to persuade
those people to leave.”
Indonesia hopes to cash in on manta ray tourism
Continued from page 2
for medicinal concoctions, mainly in China. Mantas are
also frequently caught accidentally by fishermen, but they
are not part of a major targeted industry in Indonesia as in
other countries, such as Sri Lanka, Gunawan said.
Increased demand has led to a sharp drop in manta
numbers in recent years, raising international concern.
Multibillionaire Virgin Group boss Richard Branson has
sounded alarms though the “Manta Ray of Hope”
conservation project. And last year the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora imposed new trade regulations for the
species.
“Enforcement and community education are always
necessary in order for this or any law to have a real
impact, but passage of the law is a critical step,” Mary
O’Malley, lead author of the study from the San
Francisco-based nonprofit WildAid, said in an e-mail.
She said her organization also plans to launch a
campaign in China to address demand there.
Mantas are among the world’s largest fish and can
reach up to 26 feet from wingtip to wingtip. Found in the
tropics, they can live up to 50 years, but do not mature
until age eight to 10, and typically give birth to a single
pup only every two to five years. This slow reproduction
rate means fishing cannot be sustained over the long haul,
and mantas are classified as vulnerable to extinction on
the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red
List of Threatened Species.
Mantas are smart and capable of migrating more than
621 miles, and each has a unique pattern of spots on its
belly. Unlike stingrays, they have no barbs and are
harmless to humans.
Even though they are beloved by divers and snorkellers,
due to their size, friendliness, and graceful beauty in the
water, much remains unknown about their population
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numbers worldwide.
Early last year, Indonesia’s Institute of Science
estimated that the country has 17,000 mantra rays,
though it said that approximation did not account for
regional migrations and may be overly optimistic.
In addition to Indonesia, manta fishing is banned in
Australia, Ecuador, the European Union, Mexico, New
Zealand, the Philippines, Guam, the Micronesian island
of Yap, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. states
of Hawaii and Florida.
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