Haughty - The 'Specialty' of Hanoi

Not only domestic tourists, but also foreign tourists often get overcharged in Hanoi when it comes to dining, taking taxis, cyclos, hotel prices, being surrounded by street vendors pressuring to buy items or lured into taking photos with conical hats and bamboo baskets, only to be charged later.

Is it because they are from out of town?

These are just a few minor stories in the business culture, service culture in Hanoi. In fact, such unprofessional business practices are not unique to Hanoi, and it is truly unfair to attribute all these mixed, messy, and unsightly cultural elements solely to the people of Hanoi.

Many elderly people who have lived in Hanoi for a long time or families who have been connected to Hanoi for 7 - 8 generations affirm: people in old Hanoi were always gentle, behaved gracefully, skillful, and friendly, with polite manners, absolutely no lack of courtesy towards guests as it is now.

Mr. Nguyen Thu Ha, a native Hanoian, shares: 'Saying that Hanoi people provide poor service, have poor manners through the above phenomena is biased because Hanoi now is not just about those considered native Hanoians anymore. I believe that among the business people, service staff, and sellers in Hanoi today, only a small part are native Hanoians, while the majority are people from rural provinces migrating here. The mixture has brought along different cultural aspects, different behaviors that blend and tarnish the refined, courteous culture of old Hanoians, making the service culture towards guests no longer standard.'

Many cultural researchers have also responded in the media to this issue, stating that the lack of culture in business practices, customer service has only 'surfaced' in recent years, and this is 'due to the downside of the typical temper of rural people used to cursing, it is due to people from rural provinces migrating to the capital, bringing it with them, not the cultural trait of native Hanoians'.