With their festivals and traditional industries, their communal halls, pagodas, temples, and vernacular buildings, the villages around Ha Noi possess a rich body of cultural, architectural and craft heritage. Less than one hour from the capital are over 500 specialist craft villages, producing an array of religious or artistic objects, as well as food products, industrial goods, textiles, basketware and much more. Despite the trials and tribulations Vietnam has endured, these traditions have remained alive; today they constitute the basis of material, social and spiritual culture among the village communities of the Red River delta.

We propose 10 itineraries, each including several craft villages and cultural villages that contain architectural heritage of superior quality. Selection criteria for villages when drawing up the itineraries were:

- Presence of a traditional craft dedicated to making everyday or cultural and decorative goods

- Ancient craftsand those from which originate ancestor worship during festivals

- About a dozen workshops to be visited, some of them belonging to famous craftspeople

- Architectural heritage of superior quality (pagodas, temples, dinh, etc)

- Presence of traditional markets

- Accessibility from Ha Noi