Old City of Shanxi

Location: Located at the center town of Son Tay, Hanoi.
Features: This is an old house with a military structure and a system of walls, gates built entirely of laterite.
Shanxi land known by tourists as it offers many scenic spots, famous historical sites such as Dong Mo, Son Tay Ancient Citadel, Duong Lam ancient village, temples and pagodas Cane ... which, the Shanxi famous incident is not just an ancient castle with a special structure on the military but also an ancient citadel wall system, the port was built with laterite very solid, solid ( laterite is a building material typical of the Shanxi before).
From Hanoi city center, down the Highway 32 over 40km to the west, you will reach the town of Son Tay. Old City of Shanxi is located in the center of town, was built in 1822 and was once the capital of the Tam Tuyen, including 3 provinces: Shanxi, Hung Hoa, Tuyen Quang, under King Minh Mang dynasty .
Quadrilateral shape, perimeter around 1.304m with 4 porches out in: East, West, Tien, Hau; each port with 18m high gazebo to be able to observe all things that at the bottom and wall systems built with laterite bricks very solid 5m high, around a 3m deep moat there, 20m wide, 1.795m long.
 
The inside has 4 cannons were placed at 4 corners into, with Kinh Thien Palace (ie the building 5 times, the workplace and the rest of the king whenever reasonable walking), with palaces and public road of the governor, police Court, Admiral, Chief of Education ... there is also a water well, flagpole, barracks ...
Notably, the ancient city of Shanxi is this citadel was built according to the architecture of the wheel of the French band.
According to historical records, the ancient city of Shanxi is because engineers S.P.de Vauban - a French military design. He was the one who revolutionized the art of defense under King Louis XIV I (Louis XIV), commanded many important building in France, such as the in Lin (Lille, 1667), Na muy (Namur , 1692). Radio-tape type of geometric shaped clear, there are parts protruding edges, consistent with military conditions have developed. In Vietnam, this type of construction in some places, such as Gia Dinh (Saigon), Hue (Thua Thien - Hue), Shanxi (Hanoi), Vinh (Nghe An), Dong Hoi (Quang Sick)…
After nearly 200 years with many ups and downs of history, this ancient citadel has been degraded.
In 1994, the Ministry of Culture and Information (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) has recognized the ancient city of Shanxi as historic national culture.
In 2003, this ancient castle has been renovated with buildings partly recreated the look of it before. Visitors have the opportunity to just admire the unique architecture has had a chance to relax, visit, sightseeing here, besides the renovation of the buildings, it is also built on site with customers luxuriant trees, lush and several other buildings ...

Dated 16.02.2009, Hanoi City People's Committee has decided to continue the renovation and refurbishment of historic cultural ancient city of Shanxi to cater to the great anniversary of 1,000 years of Thang Long - Hanoi.