Hanoi’s ancient citadel unearthed during car park construction

The management unit (PMU) also instructed the Management Bureau of National Assembly Office, the agency that ordered the building of the car park to disassemble structures built there to reduce degradation to the valuable historic site.

Earlier the Managing Bureau had begun to set concrete in 7,500 sq. m there to build a new car park, which, according to experts and archeologists, would be to the detriment of the citadel remains.

Continued construction of the project encountered major protest from the public media.

The PMU has now given back a section of the area to the National Archeology Institute to supervise and carry on archeological studies there.

The citadel was discovered early in 2003 during excavations to rebuild the Ba Dinh Hall Complex, the seat of Vietnam’s legislature.

After conducting a thorough archeological search of the site, researchers discovered layers of structures built on top of each other and millions of artifacts dating back to the 7th century that detailed long-lost history of the ancient capital.

The citadel was inaugurated as a museum for the public in October 2003.

It's a bit sad, Vietnamese history seems to be almost about its relation with China and not wanting to be a part of it.

So from what era are those artifacts??

Dong Son or something?
I'm currently reading a book called "The Birth of Vietnam" by Keith Weller Taylor. It's a bit sad, Vietnamese history seems to be almost about its relation with China and not wanting to be a part of it.

I'll read more and tell you all about it.

So from what era are those artifacts??
Dong Son or something?

I'm currently reading a book called "The Birth of Vietnam" by Keith Weller Taylor. It's a bit sad, Vietnamese history seems to be almost about its relation with China and not wanting to be a part of it.

I'll read more and tell you all about it.

Maybe it was the way the author worded it in the introduction.

It was really dramatized in wording, repeatily saying how the Vietnamese people just wanted to be left alone.

I guess what made me sad is how much of Vietnamese culture and history had to do with its relationship with China.

Vietnamese ppl weren't given a single opportunity to develop their own culture, because they were always up in arms fending off a Chinese attack or under subjugation or something.

The most admirable trait is the undying willingness for independence, but the reason WHY that is the case is sad.

What's the point of making exquisite art that's bound to be looted and exploiting the people to build fancy palaces that are bound to attract a conqueror's attention when these same people are of more use tilling the fields, maintaining the dikes, going on fishing expeditions, trading and defending the borders?

Compare Angkor Wat with the Kim Van Kieu:

- Portable
Angkor Wat: No
Kim Van Kieu: Yes

- Pieces stolen
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Cost a mint to build
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Litterally built off the taxpayer's back:
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Manpower to build
Angkor Wat: tens of thousands
Kim Van Kieu: 1 disgruntled scholar

- Looted by heavily armed Thai tourist armies
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Will last forever
AngKor Wat: No (especially not after our Indian friends apply their proven acid based restoration methods)
Kim Van Kieu: Yes

- Can be stored put on a DVD:
Angkor Wat: No
Kim Van Kieu: Yes
I rest my case. On the other hand,

Has tons of pictures of stunning, georgous, bare-breasted, dark women
Angkor Wat: Yes!
Kim Van Kieu:

Tons of half-naked Western women tourists visiting
Angkor Wat: Yes!
Kim Van Kieu:

Required reading in Vietnamese schools
Angkor Wat: No
Kim Van Kieu:

The ancient Vietnamese didn't want to become just another ethnic minority of the Chinese empire, they didn't want to be treated like 2nd class citizens. Having absorbed what they considered the best of Chinese culture, they wanted to be the masters of their own land and way of life. Vietnamese aspiration for independence has been, and will continue to be, the cause of great national wars and untold heroism that has ceaselessly frustrated and dumbstruck some of the most powerful empires of this bloody earth.

Compare Angkor Wat with the Kim Van Kieu:

- Portable
Angkor Wat: No
Kim Van Kieu: Yes

- Pieces stolen
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Cost a mint to build
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Litterally built off the taxpayer's back:
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Manpower to build
Angkor Wat: tens of thousands
Kim Van Kieu: 1 disgruntled scholar

- Looted by heavily armed Thai tourist armies
Angkor Wat: Yes
Kim Van Kieu: No

- Will last forever
AngKor Wat: No (especially not after our Indian friends apply their proven acid based restoration methods)
Kim Van Kieu: Yes

- Can be stored put on a DVD:
Angkor Wat: No
Kim Van Kieu: Yes
I rest my case. On the other hand,

Has tons of pictures of stunning, georgous, bare-breasted, dark women
Angkor Wat: Yes!
Kim Van Kieu:

Tons of half-naked Western women tourists visiting
Angkor Wat: Yes!
Kim Van Kieu:

Required reading in Vietnamese schools
Angkor Wat: No
Kim Van Kieu:

You're saying the Cambodians don't have epic stories themselves??

Wow!! Very well said!

The great Cambodian epic is the Ramayama or something like that. You can find gold plated depictions of it in the Royal Palace at Phnom Phen.

They weren't pointless, China's reason for lifting hundreds of millions of people out of property has alot to do with the construction industry.

Tough question #1: can you distinguish between paid and unpair labor?
Tough question #2: what makes you think that the workers who built Angkor Wat were paid for their work?

yeah, they were. because the article i read said the king lost the loyalty of his people because he stopped building complexes that employed them.

It's better than your link before when we discussed this months ago from some travel website like goasiatravel.com or something.
It can. The US got out of the Great Depression by starting major public works like the Tenesee Valley Authority. Keysian economics.

The temples also had irritgation systems around them that allowed for several rice harvest in a year. That provided the money to hire workers to cut stone, transport them, carve them. They get hungry so you have people to become cooks, farmers, prepare foods. Those people need to be clothed, so you have people to become tailors. The priest of these temples need elaborate jewelry and clothing vestments to show their authority so you get people to make those things.
Money goes round and round and you have an economy.