BBC's Great Asian Railway Journeys Hue to Ninh Binh S01E09 1080P HD
I'm in southeast Asia with my 1913 Bradshaw's handbook published at the height of European imperialism. my 100 year old guy book will leave me on a railway adventure through archipelago's and peninsulas dotted with hills forests and paddy fields. I'll tour towering mega cities and magnificent mosques. I'll encounter golden Buddhas and dual and experience some of the world's most spectacular and notorious railways as i travel through the diverse nations of this vast region. I'll learn how they asserted their independence
against the British french and dutch empires to become the economic tigers and dragons of today i'm in vietnam aboard the country's unification railway my journey takes me north through what was at the time of my 1913 bradshaw's guide french indochina my destination is hanoi where in 1945 ho chi minh declared independence for all of vietnam it would take another 30 years of wars before that was actually achieved i will cross the former demilitarized zone which in fact was heavily mined that formed the division between north and south vietnam following the french defeat this unification railway which runs from saigon to hanoi is proof that the political divisions have been eliminated i shall be interested to see whether there are cultural differences between south and north i began in ho chi minh city in the south before embarking on a 1 000 mile journey aboard the unification railway i'm reaching the city of hue before heading north to ninbin from where i'll make an excursion to the rice fields from nin bin i'll travel to the capital hanoi before heading to the port of haifan i'll complete my trip exploring the emerald waters of ha long bay as i strike north it's best foot forward to seek out a highly prized commodity like last year we exported 6 million tons that's quite a lot it's quite a lot yeah i'll get a taste for a north vietnamese speciality and i'm dipping it into a thick very tasty very warm stew and lose my thread making vietnam's iconic hat hue in central vietnam for a hundred and fifty years way was the imperial capital of the nuian dynasty the last royal family to rule vietnam the city is best approached from the huang or perfume river aboard a traditional dragon boat the river takes its name from the tropical scent of mountain tree resin and blossom carried down on its current hi before i came here all my visions of vietnamese waterways were drawn either from war footage or from war movies but when i've been traveling by train i've noticed that we cross rivers again and again over bridges vietnam is largely made of water and the waterways are so lovely this central part of today's vietnam was at the time of my 1913 guy book known as anam a kingdom over which a french protectorate was established in 1886. the french left in place the emperor but he was a mere puppet whose strings they pulled the guidebook goes on one having betrayed symptoms of insanity was deposed in december 1906 and his son zwie tan raised to the throne with the council of regency he being still a miner the imperial citadel on the left bank of the river is a magnificent walled fortress surrounding the empress palace and temples built in the early 19th century it was modeled on the vast forbidden city in beijing today the flag of the socialist republic of vietnam flies over the former royal residence i'm meeting historian fan tan high who will show me to the heart of imperial power the empress throne room at mr high this palace is absolutely wonderful this taiwan hall is the most important architecture inside the royal village of the muy dynasty and it symbolizing the power of the wind and st tell me about this wayan dynasty then when does it start in the beginning of the 19th century from 1802 but in fact before that they ancestor on already have a 200 years in the south vietnam so we can say that we see they exist about 350 years french catholic missionaries arrived in the new york kingdom in 1619 seeking to gain a foothold in vietnam successive new year empress expelled some and tolerated others until in 1833 emperor min man executed seven and their vietnamese converts france responded in 1858 ostensibly to missionary pleas for protection by launching an invasion by 1885 france had conquered all of vietnam and the new ian emperors were reduced to mere figureheads in the central region i'm very intrigued by this incident in 1906 where an emperor who is thought possibly to be mad is deposed and replaced by his little son who's only seven years old tell me about this 1906 is the year the emperor tangtai was it wrong and the friend chose his son is an emperor's return to the throne why they said that emperor tentai was a madman was him happen but no in fact he asylum to prepare to again french a revolution against yes yes they prepare a revolution to again french but not success so when friends know that they decided to dethrone him and take him to africa you think he wasn't mad he was just a rebel yes of course he not met man the french assumed they could control the boy king's return but he was also sympathetic to a fledgling resistance movement which at the time of my guidebook planned to overthrow the colonial power what about the little boy what happens to him although he very small how to say is uh he liked his father's character yeah and 10 years later to 1916 he also prepared a revolution to again french when he lost friend also took him to africa like his father so two emperors who believed in independence who rebelled against the french and who were sent into exile yes yes france maintained her grip on the new enthrone until 1945 when the last emperor abdicated after communist forces proclaimed vietnamese independence during the two indo-chinese wars that followed that declaration the citadel suffered significant damage now restored it evokes the opulent lifestyle of vietnam's last dynasty now we are inside the forbidden public city this play eventually for the emperor his wife concubine and zunak yeah and you know emperor of muy nasty almost they have a hundred servants including concubine and munich and they have a very luxury light inside forbidden prophecy much of this enormous imperial palace has been destroyed in wars but what remains is really wonderful what a paradox to think of the emperors living a life of indescribable luxury here when they'd already lost all their powers to the french and although that rich lifestyle must have separated them completely from the vietnamese people yet it was two of the emperors who were the focus of the independence movement and today in the socialist republic of vietnam the throne upon which 13 empress sat is still so revered that no tourist is allowed to photograph it today the weather has been typical for vietnam absolutely burning sun in the morning now there's thunder and lightning a storm is on the way and if i let it my panama hat will be reduced by the rain to blotting paper it is laughably inadequate the vietnamese have had a solution to this problem for the last 3000 years time for me to exchange my comical hat for a conical one in the rural villages surrounding play skillful artisans make these hats i'm meeting mrs noe who's crafted them for the last 30 years show me what you're doing so what i'm picking up is that all the little triangles of palm leaf are secured by a pin here at the top and then the whole thing is held in place by this band which i think is just going to be temporary and then she's very beautifully arranging the pleats of the palm leaves so they just overlap each other and i suppose with great experience she's got just the right number oh what a beautiful fine thread look at that it's like gossamer and now the sewing oh this is beautiful she's a beautiful seamstress she's using a very fine thread and she's just going around the hat close to its north pole hats are made all over vietnam but those from hue artisans are said to be the most durable and elegant because traditionally they supplied the royal family did your do you make all the hats in the same size let me have a good i'm i guess i'm not made to be a millionaire hello bye attention studies stream is coming to the station on track one passenger should kindly wait for the train to start before getting off according to the guidance of the railway staff my journey will continue north on the unification railway the country was united in 1975 when communist forces from the north overran saigon in the south ending the vietnam war it had been officially divided for two decades when the forces of ho chi minh massively defeated the french at the battle of in 1954 two new countries were created north and south vietnam separated by a demilitarized zone whose area we will cross by night the zone was based on a similar one that was part of the ceasefire in korea today the demilitarized zone in vietnam is a tourist attraction people go to see the network of tunnels that was created by the viet cong the dmz in korea is still in existence my next stop nin bin is ten hours away so tonight i'll sleep on board so as you can see it has four bunk beds now these could be for four strangers even i've taken the proportion of hiring the entire cabin for myself so i have lots of space although each of the bunks is quite narrow but i don't want you to think about trans canadian or trans australian levels of luxury no private facilities here just what you see and at the end of the corridor there isn't even a shower uh just a loo which i'm sharing with everyone else uh up and down this carriage so um it's fine and uh i expect i'll sleep well daybreak and my train arrives in nin bin most visitors make this small unassuming city their base to explore the surrounding countryside the province of ninbin is famed for its dramatic limestone outcrops which tower above verdant flooded paddy fields these ladies are drying their rice on the village street the concrete is modern the method is timeless i've come to the area of tam [ __ ] to learn about vietnam's staple crop dr tuan is an historian from the vietnam national university it's one very beautiful landscape here where are the nearest paddy fields to us sit back beyond the mountain that's uh 100 meter away and then we will see the paddy field yeah we're in the red river delta why is that such a good area for rice cray the red river was like at the backbone of this uh northern area the river has been very important for the early civilizations of the vietnamese people because they can rely on rice agriculture rice cultivation more than 8 000 years ago really rice goes back that far when the crop is absolutely ready to harvest what does it look like normally here we have two crops one in the summer and one in the late fall it will i mean the pedi feel will turn yellow beautiful and that's the time the people have this advice tron can you describe to me how important rice is to the vietnamese people extremely important because it is a main staple of the vietnamese people from history until today it is the main food of the country of the people it is also the main export of the country at this moment when the french colonial government is still here in the late night in the early 20th century rice were exported in very great quantity to different destination hong kong china southern asia so it brings a benefit for the country over just 50 years the french quadrupled the area of land devoted to cultivating rice chiefly in the mekong delta in the south and they profited greatly from it at the expense of landless vietnamese workers but in vietnam it seems that growing rice is more than a business rice is not only for economics means but rice also we can see in even cultural aspects of the country for example vietnamese people have a very important rituals because the ancestor worshipping so whenever you worship the ancestor during the important time of the years you need to have rice and even though there has been industrialization in vietnam i suppose many thousands of people still make their living growing rice today urbanization people living in the town and city is like almost 40 percent but still many of them living in the countryside and of course many of them are still working in the panicking so agriculture is still the main characteristic of vietnam even today why does vietnam export so much because it has so much or because the quality is so high the production is high i mean we produce a lot like last year we export six million tons that's quite a lot it's quite a lot yeah today vietnam is the world's third largest rice exporter after india and thailand the highest yields are produced in the south where the climate is warm and humid throughout the year farmers here in the north have to contend with monsoons and cold winters and logistics pose a challenge do the rice farmers use boats to access their paddy fields yeah they have to use boat uh for assessing the paddy view because this area is surrounded by the rocky mountain so the only means of getting in is live by boat and then you see it's uh so interesting that people are using the fit for rowing because according to the local people rowing with the fit we have shapes uh like born so after a day of bending over the paddy fields at least they could stretch their back out when they rode yeah i see i think so it's good though yeah makes sense mr vin is a rice farmer what do you do with your rice come try sounds good yeah sounds good do you live close by sadly at mr vin's house steamed rice is laid out on a flat board and pressed down and then cut into rectangles and laid out in the sun now here's a remarkable sight this is what mr vinh uses his rice for this is kumchai looks like slices of white bread about twice as heavy and clearly made of rice which is all stuck together and it's drying out here in the tremendous heat and i think that's just the beginning of the story i can smell delicious odors from the kitchen mrs vin is frying the dried rice slices in hot oil which turns it yellow and crispy it's traditionally served with stew of liver and pig's heart literally translates as scorched the gum rice has the consistency of a light flaky biscuit and i'm dipping it into a thick very tasty and very warm stew is kumchai foreign nin bin stands amongst spectacular countryside on the red river delta which stretches for 150 kilometers along the gulf of tonkin it is actually vietnam's most populated area containing many cities including industrial ones like haifang and hanoi but traditionally people clustered in this area because of the fertility of the soil and even today thousands of farmers are employed cultivating its most important crop rice next time i'll visit communist leader ho chi minh's final resting place ho chi minh had quite a modest lifestyle is this what he expected no absolutely not enjoy hanoi's distinctive brew i didn't know you could add hot coffee to whipped egg and watch my waistline at a clothing factory i assume they make stretch garments here i've had one of those egg coffees delicious we're still traveling later on bbc two this time with ed balls meeting a social media star in milan a farmer in calabria and a french lace maker whose life's in tatters travels in euroland at nine next mariella frost and pearl low on their celebrity antiques road trip you
2021-01-28 02:06
