Hanoi

Hanoi[a] (Vietnamese: Hà Nội ⓘ) is the capital and second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river,"[15] – Hanoi is bordered by the Red and Black Rivers. As a municipality, Hanoi consists of 12 urban districts, 17 rural districts, and one district-level town. The city encompasses an area of 3,359.84 km2 (1,297.24 sq mi)[3] and as of 2023, a population of 8,587,100.[8] Hanoi had the second-highest gross regional domestic product of all Vietnamese provinces and municipalities at 51.4 billion USD in 2022,[13] behind Ho Chi Minh City.[16] In the third century BCE, the Cổ Loa Capital Citadel of Âu Lạc was constructed in what is now Hanoi. Âu Lạc then fell under Chinese rule for around a thousand years. In 1010, Vietnamese emperor Lý Thái Tổ established the capital of the imperial Vietnamese nation Đại Việt in modern-day central Hanoi, naming the city Thăng Long (lit. 'ascending dragon'). In 1428, king Lê Lợi renamed the city to Đông Kinh (東京, lit. 'eastern capital'), and remained being so until 1789. The Nguyễn dynasty in 1802 moved the national capital to Huế and the city was renamed Hanoi in 1831. It served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1945. After the August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam designated Hanoi as the capital of the newly independent country. In 2008, Hà Tây Province and two other rural districts were annexed into Hanoi, almost tripling Hanoi's area.