To make Vinh worthy of the North Central region's growth pole Part 1: The historical flow of Vinh city
For more than 200 years, looking back at the flow of urban history in Vietnam, Vinh is an early formed city. The meeting of Eastern and Western architectural schools from the fluctuations of history has created diversity that shapes the identity of Vinh city.
For more than 200 years, looking back at the flow of Vietnam's urban history, Vinh is an early-formed city. The meeting of Eastern and Western architectural schools from the fluctuations of history has created diversity, shaping the identity of Vinh city.
From Yen Truong commune to Vinh town
On October 1, 1788, exactly 236 years ago, Emperor Quang Trung issued an edict to build the capital Phoenix in Yen Truong commune, Chan Loc district at the foot of Dung Quyet mountain, now Trung Do ward, Vinh city; because "only establishing the capital in Nghe An is a way to balance and control the South and the North and will make it convenient for people from all over to come and file lawsuits". Unfortunately, the sudden passing of the hero Quang Trung and the collapse of the Tay Son dynasty left the construction of Phoenix Trung Do unfinished.
Under the Nguyen Dynasty, in 1804 to be exact, Nghe An citadel was built, the land that is now Vinh city officially became the capital of Nghe An. Nghe An citadel and Vinh market became important landmarks for the development of Vinh city for more than 200 years. After the French colonialists occupied Nghe An citadel in August 1885, officially establishing their domination, they saw the potential of Vinh to invest in building it into a large industrial center at that time, serving the colonial exploitation.
The modest notes in "Indochina", the memoir of Paul Doumer - Governor General of Indochina from 1897-1902, President of France from 1931 to 1932 (before being assassinated) about Nghe An give us a partial picture of the transformation of Vinh city under French colonial rule, from a feudal provincial capital with an agricultural economy to an industrial center. “Nghe An or Vinh, although less large and less populous than its rich neighbor (Thanh Hoa - PV), is certainly a very beautiful province. It is not too isolated, thanks to the small port of Ben Thuy on the Lam River, just a few kilometers from Vinh. A steam-powered barge from Hai Phong and occasionally a small sailing boat cross the river mouth, when the tide is high, anchor at Ben Thuy. This is also the transit point for precious wood from the upstream forests, down the river. They are sawn in a large sawmill of French merchants, the Mange brothers; from there they create logs of pure hardwood and many other products for export to Europe. In recent years, along with the sawmill, a match factory has been opened, meeting the consumption needs of a part of Indochina”, wrote Paul Doumer.
Under the reign of this Governor General of Indochina, Vinh was one of the cities that received large investments in infrastructure, most notably the railway system. On March 17, 1905, the first steam train whistled to enter Vinh Station, marking the official completion of the 320km railway line from Hanoi to Vinh at a cost of 43 million francs. In his memoirs, Governor General of Indochina Paul Doumer especially emphasized the importance of the Hanoi - Vinh railway: "The economic benefits of the lines that will run across and connect the beautiful provinces of Thanh Hoa and Vinh will certainly not be less. This is a large isolated land, without roads connecting to the outside world, will be invited to join the flow of traffic and exchange. The prosperity of the colony will increase thanks to that." In addition, the French also built a 5km long Vinh - Ben Thuy railway to transport goods.
Paul Doumer also chose Vinh as one of the important traffic hubs to connect with Laos. The French surveyed to consider building a railway from Vinh to Xieng Khouang (Laos) through the plateau of the same name and extending it, one side to Luang Prabang, the other side to Vientiane or a nearby point on the upper Mekong River. Looking back at history, we can see the geostrategic position of Vinh city in terms of economic, cultural and social development and ensuring national defense, security and foreign affairs. In particular, more than 100 years ago, Vinh city was positioned as an important hub serving trade on the North-South and East-West corridors.
Associated with the colonial exploitation of the French colonialists, by the early 20th century, the face of Vinh city had changed profoundly, becoming a large industrial city; a city of workers with tens of thousands of workers and the cradle of the patriotic and revolutionary movement. In less than 30 years, three towns were established in the territory of Vinh city today. That was Vinh town established on July 12, 1899 by the decree of King Thanh Thai. On March 11, 1914, King Duy Tan issued a decree to establish Ben Thuy town; on February 28, 1917, King Khai Dinh issued a decree to establish Truong Thi town. On December 10, 1927, the Governor General of Indochina signed a Decree to merge three administrative units: Vinh town, Ben Thuy town and Truong Thi town, named Vinh - Ben Thuy city. However, the scale of Vinh urban area at this time was still modest with the boundary "Upper Cau Ram, Lower Ben Thuy" only about 10km2with 10 streets, from First Street to Tenth Street.
Model city
Under the leadership of the Party, together with the whole country, the people of Vinh rose up to seize power on August 21, 1945. The red flag with a yellow star flying proudly above the Vinh Consulate that afternoon marked the end of the miserable slavery of the people of Vinh town, opening a new life, where the people were the masters of their own lives, the masters of their own city. After the August Revolution in 1945, Vinh became the provincial capital of Nghe An province. After nine years of resistance against the French colonialists, responding to the call of President Ho Chi Minh, Vinh carried out a comprehensive and thorough "scorched earth resistance"; enthusiastically contributed human and material resources to serve the resistance, contributing to the historic victory of Dien Bien Phu "famous in five continents, shaking the earth" in 1954.
Entering the period of building socialism, Vinh was identified by the Central Party and the Government as one of the industrial centers of the North. On October 10, 1963, on behalf of the Government Council, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong signed Decision No. 148/CP on the establishment of Vinh city, including "the old Vinh town and Trung Nghia hamlet of Hung Dong commune, Hung Nguyen district". This was an important milestone in the process of formation and development of the city.
The people of Vinh city were excited, joyful, and enthusiastic in the joy of building socialism, but not long after, they had to suffer heavy devastation from the destructive war of American imperialism. In about 10 years, the city had to endure nearly 5,000 air raids, with about 250,000 tons of bombs dropped. In the last air raids, Vinh city lay in ruins, with only very few buildings remaining on the ground full of bomb craters.
“Fire tests gold, hardship tests strength”, “through many storms, Vinh remains steadfast”. No matter how many bombs and bullets the enemy bombs and bullets were, they could not extinguish the resilient and indomitable spirit of the people of the Red City. Amidst all the hardships and difficulties, the spirit, character and character of the people of Vinh city, full of integrity, endurance, hard work, and willingness to sacrifice for the independence, freedom and unity of the nation, still shines brightly, contributing with the people of the whole country to defeat the American imperialists, liberate the South and unify the country.
After the Paris Agreement in 1973, peace was restored in the North, Vinh city received help from the German Democratic Republic to plan and rebuild. From 1974 to 1980, more than 200 East German experts were present at the construction site. On March 1, 1974, Dr., architect Tran Ngoc Chinh - former Deputy Minister of Construction, Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, member of the Nghe An Province Socio-Economic Advisory Group, at that time a young architect, was seconded by the Minister of Construction to Vinh with a group of 19 experts from the German Democratic Republic to urgently start restoring Vinh citadel.
He said: In 1973, the Government worked with countries in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (SEV) to raise the issue of planning and rebuilding urban areas in the North. After that, a series of urban planning in the North received help from socialist countries such as: the Soviet Union planned the capital Hanoi, Romania planned Nam Dinh city (Nam Dinh province), China planned Viet Tri city (Phu Tho province), North Korea planned Bac Giang city (Bac Giang province), Bulgaria planned Thai Binh city (Thai Binh province)... In 1973, a high-ranking delegation of Vietnam led by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong paid a friendly visit to the German Democratic Republic and raised the issue of helping to rebuild the country. General Secretary Erich Honecker announced his support for planning and rebuilding Vinh city and announced it before the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin. “Vinh is the only city in Vietnam that received help in planning and building the Quang Trung apartment complex,” architect Tran Ngoc Chinh recalls.
Immediately after that, all the work was started by East German experts and Vietnamese collaborators on the city that was so severely damaged by bombs that the architects said that the city looked like “a scene on the Moon”. The neighboring country sent an experienced expert - who had designed the foundation for the tallest hotel in Berlin at that time - to solve the problem of the Quang Trung building foundation in time for the groundbreaking date of May 1, 1974, which was agreed upon by both sides. Most of the construction materials and equipment had to be imported from East Germany.
Architect Tran Ngoc Chinh said: The Quang Trung area's house model is being designed in Germany, so both you and I agreed to use the house model designed in Vietnam to start construction before A1 and A2 buildings to be on time. There is a very interesting detail: the experts from the German Democratic Republic and the Vietnamese side signed the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, with articles and pictures of the leaders of the two countries, as well as the preliminary design plan of Vinh city, and put it in a vacuum tube, then put it in a box made of duralumin taken from the wreckage of a US plane. On May 1, 1974, Quang Trung area officially started construction. Deputy Prime Minister Do Muoi went to Vinh with the head of the German Democratic Republic expert delegation, Otto Knauer, to perform the ceremony of placing the duralumin box containing that special newspaper on the foundation of A1 building, then laid the first brick to build Quang Trung area.
After three years working with a team of East German experts on the Quang Trung construction site, he affirmed: The apartments in Quang Trung at that time were the most convenient in Northern Vietnam. Because before, the apartments only had a shared kitchen and bathroom, but in Quang Trung, each apartment had a separate kitchen and bathroom for each family.
From the United States, Professor Christina Schwenkel, University of California, is an anthropologist with more than two decades of research on urban memory and the built environment in Vietnam. She spent 9 months living in C2 building in Quang Trung area to conduct field research for the book “Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam” published by Duke University Press in 2020. In one of her articles that we had access to, Christina Schwenkel asserted: The architects of the GDR brought a very new approach to urban planning, completely different from the spontaneous forms of urbanization in Vinh before. In their designs, the GDR planners sought to arrange social and spatial order to create a “more decent, bigger and more beautiful” city.
The Quang Trung housing complex was different in scale from the housing complexes being built in Hanoi at that time. The original design was quite impressive for a small city like Vinh: Planners proposed 36 buildings in five adjacent areas (AE) for 15,000 “priority” citizens in need of housing. However, by the end of 1980, the project was closed with 22 buildings in areas A, B, C and one in area D. A total of 1,500 apartments were allocated to about 9,000 people.
“As the first five-story structure in Vinh city, the Quang Trung housing complex quickly became a model socialist housing in Nghe An and the newly unified Vietnam,” she said. “These were the first single-family apartments in Vinh with modern amenities, such as indoor plumbing and kitchens. The Quang Trung housing complex had convenient on-site facilities similar to those in East Germany, including a shopping mall, kindergarten, primary school, youth cultural house, cinema and plenty of green space for recreational activities, including a new stadium nearby.”
