Villages around Hanoi

Bat Trang: is known as the ‘ceramic village’. Here artisans mass-produce ceramic vases and other pieces in their kilns. It’s hot, sweaty work, but the results are superb and very reasonably priced. There are masses of ceramic shops but poke around down the lanes and behind the shops to find the kilns. Bat Trang is 13km southeast of Hanoi.
Van Phuc: is a silk village. You can see silk cloth being produces on a loom, and buy or order custom-made clothes. Many of the fine silk items you see on sale in Hanoi’s Hang Gai street originate here. There’s a small daily fruit-and-vegetable market here in the morning, and a village pagoda with a lily pond. Van Phuc is 8km southwest of Hanoi in Ha Tay province.