Hanoi Street Scenes

Vietnam’s capital is a teeming city of 6 million people, where gracefully crumbling houses from the turn of the last century are crammed, cheek by jowl, with newer apartments and shops of every color and style; where space is at a premium and much of daily life takes place on the sidewalks and in the parks; where vendors pushing bicycles or carrying baskets ply their trade in the narrow streets of the Old Quarter; and where monumental buildings hark back to the country's French colonial past.