Houses nestled among flower gardens - unlike today, where they stand next to one another. Professor Vu Khieu explains that many of Hanoi's problems arise because it has been urbanised from an agricultural base. The rest come from other areas, from the countryside and from the war. They have brought with them their rural life style to Hanoi. People raise chickens and pigs as if they were in the countryside.
Many French villas are divided and shared by several families and cooking is done in the same room.
Thuy Linh complains that, as in other cities, nature and greenery have been lost in a welter of skyscrapers, apartment blocks and traffic. No one wants to return to the old days but the pressure of today's life is awful. And people have to pay dearly for today's abundance - sometime even with their own happiness. People today don't even have time for reflection. I can't imagine how people will live in the 21st century.