Hanoi, city of the rising dragon, has a history stretching back for a thousand years and the city has captured the soul of Vietnam says the introduction to a just released book entitled Hanoi Capital City by Michael Waibel.

Michael Waibel is a senior researcher and project leader in urbanism at the Department for Geography of the University of Hamburg.  He previously released a the highly successful photo book in 2014 entitled TP. Hồ Chí Minh: MEGA City together with Henning Hilbert from the Vietnamese-German University (VGU).

This second book introduces Hanoi’s recent urban development and has an attractive coffee table book format. It has been published in three languages – Vietnamese, German and English.

It contains over 600 photos illustrating the multi-facetted and vibrant city from a variety of perspectives – from a bird’s eye view to portraits of its inhabitants.

A photo in the book.

In addition to the visual illustrations, it assembles essays written Hanoi residents who share their personal perspective, which adds a multigenerational perspective, contributing to a comprehensive picture of this city.

It has been funded by the German National Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the initiative ‘Research for Sustainable Megacities of Tomorrow’. Further, a series of conferences in cooperation with the Goethe Institute have been organised, which deal with urban sustainability issues, green housing, green growth or most recently with creative hubs and urban development.

VOV