7 Best Sights in Halong Bay and North-Central Vietnam, Vietnam

Shady and green, this park is the site of early morning tai chi classes and nighttime strolls, where locals sit at sidewalk stalls drinking fruit shakes and eating sweets and roller skaters zoom by. Near the southwestern edge stands a massive statue of local heroine Le Chan, and there's a colorful daily Flower Market. Kids enjoy the playground and amusement rides in the attached Children's Park.

Some beautiful pagodas stand in the southern and eastern districts of the city, and this is the most impressive and moving of all. The 300-year-old temple is a good example of traditional Vietnamese architecture, with a gate and three buildings surrounding a stone courtyard crowded with flowers, statues, and bonsai plants. In front and to the right of the compound is a round pond with lotus flowers encircled by white statues of the Buddha and scholars. One of the 10 monks who live here may be chanting her daily prayers and tapping on a round wooden drum in the richly gilded main sanctuary. Occasionally in the afternoons, the senior monk holds one-on-one healing sessions with the sick. Hundreds of Buddhists fill the courtyard on Buddhist holy days, the 1st and 15th of every lunar month. To get here follow Cat Cut Street south until you hit Chua Hang Street. After a few alleyways, you'll see the pagoda set back on the left. It can be a bit tricky to find on your own, so use a GPS or guide to help you find it.

In the heart of the city, a huge shuttered French villa with creaky wooden staircases, musty corners, and occasionally rotating ceiling fans houses this museum—an underrated gem of a building that rivals the Opera House in classic design. Although it attempts to cover all of the history, geography, archaeology, agriculture, and wildlife of the region (the stuffed owl with a rodent in its claws is rather macabre), the museum's main focus is on Vietnam's struggle for independence from various forces. In recent years, the museum has closed its doors to visitors except for prearranged tours. 

One of the most beautiful buildings in Haiphong, the Opera House, built by the French in 1907, has all the exterior designs of a classic, except for its coat of splendidly yellow paint. Once the site of lavish French and Vietnamese productions, the 400-seat theater was taken over by the Vietminh following World War II. President Ho Chi Minh addressed the world's youth from the steps in June 1946, and a huge portrait of him, visible from hundreds of yards away, hangs above the wooden front doors, making this feel eerily like the focal point of the city. In a way it is; the Haiphong People's Committee now holds its major meetings and assemblies here. Stage productions and concerts do take place, but they're rare. If you're not attending a show, you need written permission from the authorities to step inside, although tourists have been known to be waved in on occasion. The stone courtyard in front of the opera house is a popular place for families on weekends and couples after sunset.

As might be expected of a city whose name means "sea defense," much of Haiphong's more intriguing history is documented in the Navy Museum. Here you can see the Bach Dang stakes—the sharp wooden poles driven into the riverbed that impaled Kublai Khan's boats in 1288. A room dedicated to the Vietnam War houses a (presumably deactivated) MK-52 mine pulled from the waters of Haiphong Harbor in 1973, the lighthouse lantern that warned of impending bombing raids, and the antiaircraft gun that brought down a dozen American planes.

This temple is more than just a religious site. Nghe Temple is dedicated to Le Chan, the founder of Haiphong City, a heroic peasant woman who helped organize the popular revolt against the Chinese that was led by the two Trung sisters in AD 40. Ceramic reliefs at the top of the front wall depict the Trung sisters in royal carriages. Ancestral altars and chapels are to the right, through the courtyard.

Haiphong's pagodas are tucked into the city's alleyways or off in the suburbs; no major religious structures except the city's main Catholic cathedral stand out in the middle of town. The cathedral was built in 1880 by missionaries from Spain. Regular Masses are still held.