In Hanoi, the end of busy sidewalks threatens street culture

The sidewalks of Hanoi are teeming with street vendors, scooters or customers eating while seated on plastic stools, but the Vietnamese capital now wants to clean up, threatening this street culture appreciated by tourists. If street vending has long been tolerated in an informal manner, the fines are now applied and the municipality is considering doubling them.

Sidewalks in the sights of the authorities

“Without street vendors, Hanoi is no longer Hanoi. It’s a tradition”estimates Nguyen Thi Hoan, 58, who previously sold flowers at the foot of a large building in the city center. After working for ten years on the same concrete slab, she was relegated, with fruit and vegetable sellers, to a less frequented vacant lot. Her turnover has been halved and the fifty-year-old says she doesn’t know “what else to do to make ends meet”.

Food, but also balloons, mechanics or hairdressers: you could generally find a little bit of everything on the bustling sidewalks of Hanoi. The Vietnamese capital has attracted record numbers of tourists in recent years and many enjoy sitting outside enjoying street food, washed down with the local bia hoi beer.

“Little plastic stools, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer”summarized former US President Barack Obama remembering a meal shared in 2016 with chef and host Anthony Bourdain for a show on CNN.

The two men had eaten their bun cha (pork-based specialty) inside a restaurant. But the episode was a true declaration of love to the sidewalks of Hanoi, where you can find everything from outdoor Zumba classes to steaming soup carts.

This abundant activity has always had its disadvantages: traffic jams, noise pollution, safety and hygiene problems… which would no longer be in line with the development advocated throughout the country by the communist leaders.

The municipality of Hanoi wants to bring order and cleanliness to this city of eight million inhabitants in full transformation. It had already led episodic campaigns to make space on the sidewalks, but efforts were intensified this time, with the installation of nearly 2,000 surveillance cameras to spot offenders.

Fines, cameras and reinforced controls

Street vendors face a fine of 250,000 dongs (8 euros) and up to 6 million (200 euros) for those blocking pedestrian traffic. According to state media, the police have imposed more than 3,000 fines since December, which a new plan plans to double, while considering allowing sellers to rent authorized spaces on the sidewalks.

An employee of a downtown marketing company, Le Trung Chien says he supports “totally the efforts of the municipality to clean up the sidewalks”. “I don’t like my city to be messy, like it always was”he explains, tired of street vendors and scooters which sometimes force him to walk on the road to reach his bus stop.

For Tran Trung Van, manager of a café, however, this means having to cram more customers inside and refuse those who prefer to smoke outside. “A third of my customers want to sit on the sidewalk, especially on cool days, in the morning or evening”he gauges, claiming to have lost part of his clientele.

Dinh Tung, an office worker, misses the moments spent with his colleagues at tables spilling out onto the street. “I hope things will return to normal soon”he testifies. “Hanoi is only Hanoi if you can drink iced tea on the sidewalk”.