The sidewalks of Hanoi are crowded with street vendors, scooters, and customers perched on plastic stools, but the Vietnamese capital now aims to tidy them up, threatening this street culture beloved by tourists. While street vending has long been tolerated informally, fines are now being enforced and the municipality is considering doubling them.
Sidewalks in the authorities’ sights
“Without street vendors, Hanoi is no longer Hanoi. It’s a tradition”, says Nguyen Thi Hoan, 58, who previously sold flowers at the base of a tall downtown building. After ten years working on the same concrete slab, she was moved, along with fruit and vegetable sellers, to a less frequented vacant lot. Her turnover has been halved and the fifty-something 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 bit of everything on Hanoi’s lively sidewalks. In recent years the Vietnamese capital has drawn a record number of tourists, and many enjoy sitting outside to sample street food, washed down with the local bia hoi beer.
“Small plastic stools, inexpensive but delicious noodles, Hanoi’s fresh beer”, summed up former American president Barack Obama as he recalled a 2016 meal with chef and television host Anthony Bourdain for a CNN program.
The two had eaten their bun cha (a pork-based specialty) inside a restaurant. But the episode was a genuine love letter to Hanoi’s sidewalks, where one can find everything from outdoor Zumba classes to the steaming carts of soup sellers.
This bustling activity has always come with drawbacks: traffic jams, noise, safety and hygiene concerns… issues that would no longer align with the development promoted across the country by the Communist leadership.
The Hanoi authorities want to bring order and cleanliness to this eight-million-strong city undergoing transformation. They had already run episodic campaigns to clear space on the sidewalks, but this time the efforts have intensified, with the installation of nearly 2,000 surveillance cameras to spot offenders.
Fines, cameras, and tougher checks
Street vendors face fines of 250,000 dongs (about 8 euros) and up to 6 million dongs (about 200 euros) for obstructing pedestrian flow. State media say the police have issued more than 3,000 fines since December, a figure the new plan aims to double, while considering allowing vendors to rent authorized sidewalk spaces.
A marketer working in the downtown area, Le Trung Chien says he “totally supports the municipality’s efforts to tidy up the sidewalks”. “I don’t like my city being in disarray, as it has always been”, he explains, tired of street vendors and scooters that sometimes force him to walk on the road to reach his bus stop.
For Tran Trung Van, a cafe manager, it instead means having to crowd more customers inside and turning away 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 observes, claiming to have lost part of his clientele.
Dinh Tung, a office worker, regrets the moments spent with his colleagues at tables spilling onto the street. “I hope things return to normal soon”, he says. “Hanoi is not Hanoi unless you can drink iced tea on the sidewalk”.
