Hang Ma Street Hanoi: The Street That Changes 4 Times a Year

Hang Ma Street Hanoi is a 339-metre strip of the Old Quarter that completely redecorates itself on a festival calendar, and if you time it right it is the most colourful street in Vietnam. This guide explains what the street sells in each season, the exact weeks each “costume” goes up, what things cost, which streets border it, and how to visit without being swallowed by the crowd. Our volunteers walk it every week of the year, so the timing advice below is tested, not guessed.

What is Hang Ma Street Hanoi famous for?

Hang Ma Street Hanoi is famous for selling everything made of paper that Vietnamese families burn, hang or play with during festivals. “Ma” means votive paper, the replica money, houses and clothes burned as offerings to ancestors. Around that permanent trade, the shopfronts swap their stock almost entirely four times a year.

That swap is what makes the street unique. On a random Tuesday in June it is a busy, slightly chaotic paper-goods street that most visitors walk through in five minutes. Three weeks before Mid-Autumn or Tet, the same 339 metres becomes a tunnel of lanterns or a wall of red and gold so dense you cannot see the building facades behind it.

The honest description our guides use: Hang Ma is a festival thermometer. Walk down it and you will know which celebration is coming next without looking at a calendar, because every family in Hanoi shops here for it.

Hang Ma Street Hanoi at a Glance: Length, Borders and Key Facts

Hang Ma Street Hanoi is roughly 339 m long and 8 m wide, running east to west through the northern Old Quarter in Hoan Kiem Ward. Its eastern end meets the Hang Duong, Hang Ngang and Hang Chieu crossroads beside Dong Xuan Market; its western end meets Phung Hung Street and the railway viaduct. Here is everything in one table.

Detail	Information
Vietnamese name	Phố Hàng Mã
Length	About 339 m (published figures range 300 to 380 m)
Width	About 8 m
Direction	East to west
East end	Crossroads with Hang Duong, Hang Ngang and Hang Chieu
West end	Phung Hung Street and the railway viaduct
Administrative area	Hoan Kiem Ward (formerly Hang Ma Ward, Hoan Kiem District)
Distance to Dong Xuan Market	About 100 m
Distance to Hoan Kiem Lake	About 700 m
Core trade	Votive paper and festival decorations
Entry fee	Free
Typical shop hours	Around 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM, later near festivals
Time needed	20 minutes normally, 60+ minutes in festival weeks

Which Streets cross or join Hang Ma Street?

Walking from east to west, Hang Ma Street Hanoi meets Hang Duong, Hang Ngang and Hang Chieu at its eastern crossroads, then Hang Ga and Thuoc Bac on the south side, Hang Dong, Hang Ruoi and Hang Cot, then Hang Luoc, before ending at Phung Hung. Several of these side streets absorb the overflow when Hang Ma fills up.

Joining street	Side	Why it matters
Hang Duong / Hang Ngang	East end	The Old Quarter’s main north-south spine, leads to Hoan Kiem Lake
Hang Chieu	East end	Leads to O Quan Chuong gate
Thuoc Bac	South	Designated motorbike parking during festival markets
Hang Ga	South	Quiet route toward Bat Dan and Hang Bo
Hang Dong	South	Historically shared a French name with Hang Ma
Hang Ruoi	North	Leads toward Hang Luoc
Hang Cot	North	Western limit of the festival market zone
Hang Luoc	North	Hanoi’s Tet flower market
Phung Hung	West end	The railway arches and mural street

Where does the Name Hang Ma come from?

The name translates simply as “votive paper goods street”, and the trade has not changed since the street was named. The land originally belonged to two villages, Vinh Thai on the eastern stretch and An Phu on the western one, separated by a branch of the To Lich River that was later filled in to create the street.

Under French rule the street was grouped with neighbouring Hang Dong under a single name, Rue du Cuivre, “Copper Street”, because the copper trade next door was considered more important. Hanoians ignored it. The paper trade outlasted the French name, which tells you how deeply the street’s identity is tied to what it sells. For the wider story of how guild streets were named, see our guide to the Famous Streets in Hanoi.

How does Hang Ma Street Hanoi change costume through the year?

Hang Ma Street Hanoi changes its stock on a fixed rhythm driven by four festivals, two Vietnamese and two imported. The Vietnamese ones follow the lunar calendar, so their Western dates move by up to three weeks each year; the imported ones are fixed. Shops start stocking roughly three to four weeks before each date.

Costume	Festival	Stock goes up	Peak weeks	Signature colours
1	Mid-Autumn (15th day, 8th lunar month)	Mid to late August	2 weeks before the full moon	Red, gold, rainbow cellophane
2	Halloween (31 October)	Early October	Last 2 weeks of October	Black, orange, purple
3	Christmas (25 December)	Mid-November	First 3 weeks of December	Red, green, silver
4	Tet, Lunar New Year	Early to mid-December	3 weeks before Tet	Red and gold everywhere
Base	Votive paper, all year	Permanent	7th lunar month and before Tet	Gold, red, printed paper

The changeovers overlap in practice. By late October you will find Halloween masks on one shopfront and early Christmas trees on the next, and Christmas tinsel often sits beside the first Tet envelopes in mid-December. That overlap is a small bonus: in the weeks between festivals, Hang Ma shows you two costumes at once.

Costume 1: Mid-Autumn Lanterns

Mid-Autumn is the costume Hang Ma Street Hanoi is most famous for, and it is the one Vietnamese families treat as a genuine tradition rather than a shopping trip. The street fills with star lanterns, papier-mâché masks, lion-dance heads and drums for the children’s full-moon festival.

In 2026 the ward organised a formal Traditional Old Quarter Mid-Autumn Market from 11 to 25 September, the 1st to 15th days of the eighth lunar month. It covered the stretch from the Hang Duong crossroads to the Hang Cot crossroads, ran from 7:00 AM to midnight, and the section was closed to cars around the clock with motorbike parking moved to Thuoc Bac Street. Linked events ran at 22 Hang Buom and at the Heritage House at 87 Ma May. Expect a similar format in future years, announced about two weeks before.

The traditional object to look for is the den ong sao, the five-pointed star lantern made from a bamboo frame and coloured cellophane. Plastic battery-powered lanterns now dominate the pavement, but several shops still sell handmade star lanterns, mat na giay boi (papier-mâché masks), den keo quan (the rotating “trotting horse” lantern) and to he, small coloured dough figures. Buy those and you are buying something a Hanoian grandparent would recognise.

Costume 2: Halloween

Halloween is the newest costume, and Hang Ma Street Hanoi has adopted it with total enthusiasm. From early October the shopfronts fill with plastic pumpkins, witch hats, skeleton costumes, fake cobwebs and rubber masks.

This is imported culture adopted by young urban Hanoians, mostly for school parties and bars, and it is interesting precisely because it has no traditional roots. There is something quietly funny about a street whose permanent trade is honouring the dead also doing a brisk business in cartoon skeletons. Our guides like pointing that out, and most guests find it delightful rather than jarring.

Costume 3: Christmas

From mid-November, Hang Ma turns red, green and silver: artificial trees, tinsel, baubles, Santa hats and nativity figures. Hanoi’s Catholic community is small but visible, and Christmas has become a broad secular celebration in the city regardless of faith.

Christmas is the most relaxed of the four costumes on Hang Ma Street Hanoi. Crowds are thinner than at Mid-Autumn or Tet, the weather has cooled to the pleasant high teens Celsius, and the stock is bright enough to photograph well. If you are in Hanoi in December and dread crowds, this is your Hang Ma Street Hanoi moment.

Costume 4: Tet, the Lunar New Year

Tet is the biggest costume of the year. From early December, Hang Ma Street Hanoi turns almost entirely red and gold: lucky-money envelopes (li xi), paper couplets, hanging lanterns, gold coin strings, artificial peach and apricot blossoms, and paper decorations shaped like the coming zodiac animal.

The costume spills well beyond Hang Ma. Neighbouring Hang Luoc becomes Hanoi’s traditional Tet flower market, stacked with real peach branches and kumquat trees, and together with Hang Duong and Dong Xuan Market it forms the Old Quarter’s main Tet shopping zone. Tet decorations range from around 10,000 VND for small items to over 500,000 VND for large pieces. The coming Tet (Year of the Goat) falls on 6 February 2027, so the costume will peak through January 2027.

One warning: Hang Ma Street Hanoi is spectacular before Tet and nearly dead during it. Many shops close for several days from New Year’s Eve, and some stay shut for a week.

The everyday costume: Votive Paper and Ghost Month

Under all four festival costumes, Hang Ma Street Hanoi never stops selling its original product: votive paper. This means paper money (including replica US dollars), paper houses, paper cars, paper smartphones, paper clothes and shoes, all burned so ancestors can use them in the afterlife.

Demand peaks at two predictable points. The first is the seventh lunar month, usually falling in August, the “ghost month“ connected to the Vu Lan festival, when families make offerings for wandering souls. The second is the week before Tet, especially around the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, when households send off the Kitchen Gods. Walk past on either occasion and you will see paper mansions three storeys high being tied onto motorbikes.

Insider note: our volunteer Minh always tells guests that buying a paper iPhone as a joke souvenir is fine, but do not give one as a gift to a Vietnamese friend. Votive items belong to the dead, and many older Hanoians consider it unlucky to keep them in a living person’s home.

What should you buy on Hang Ma Street Hanoi?

On Hang Ma Street Hanoi, buy the traditional handmade items rather than the plastic imports: bamboo star lanterns, papier-mâché masks, dough figures at Mid-Autumn, and red paper couplets or envelopes at Tet. They cost little more, pack reasonably flat, and carry a real story. Typical prices from the 2026 season:

Item	Season	Typical price (VND)
Small star lantern (den ong sao)	Mid-Autumn	30,000 to 50,000
Large star lantern	Mid-Autumn	60,000 to 80,000
Papier-mâché mask (mat na giay boi)	Mid-Autumn	50,000 to 70,000
Lion-dance head	Mid-Autumn	200,000 to 800,000
General Mid-Autumn toys	Mid-Autumn	40,000 to 250,000
Tet decorations	Tet	10,000 to 500,000+
Lucky-money envelopes, pack	Tet	Low, sold by bundle

Prices are usually fixed on smaller items and loosely negotiable on larger ones. Pay in cash with small notes; card payment is rare on Hang Ma Street Hanoi, though QR transfers are increasingly common. A papier-mâché mask survives a suitcase surprisingly well if you pack it inside clothes.

When is the Best Time to Visit Hang Ma Street Hanoi?

Visit two to three weeks before a festival, on a weekday, in the morning. That combination gives you full stock, thin crowds and the chance to watch shopkeepers actually building their displays. The final three evenings before Mid-Autumn or Tet are spectacular but genuinely difficult to walk through.

When	Crowd	What you get
Weekday morning, 8 to 11 AM	Low	Full stock, easy photos, shopkeepers willing to chat
Weekday evening, 6 to 9 PM	Medium	Lanterns lit, the street at its prettiest
Weekend evening in festival weeks	Very high	Atmosphere at maximum, walking at minimum
Last 3 days before Mid-Autumn or Tet	Extreme	Crowds spill into Hang Chieu, Hang Ruoi and Thuoc Bac
During Tet itself	Very low	Many shops closed
Between festivals (e.g. June, early August)	Low	Votive paper only, 5-minute walk

For photographs, the lantern season is best just after dusk, around 6:30 PM, when the shops switch on their lights but the full evening crowd has not yet arrived. Our volunteers routinely do the opposite of most tourists: they bring guests at 8 AM to watch the displays being unpacked, then return at dusk for the lit version. Seeing both halves of the transformation is the real experience.

How to Get to Hang Ma Street Hanoi

Walk from Hoan Kiem Lake: about 700 m and 10 minutes, heading north up Hang Dao, Hang Ngang and Hang Duong until you reach the crossroads where Hang Ma begins on your left. It is the easiest navigation in the Old Quarter.

Starting point	Distance	On foot	Notes
Hoan Kiem Lake (north end)	700 m	10 min	Straight north along the Hang Dao spine
Dong Xuan Market	100 m	2 min	Enter at the eastern crossroads
Phung Hung Mural Street	300 m	4 min	Enter from the western end
O Quan Chuong gate	500 m	7 min	Via Hang Chieu
Noi Bai Airport	about 26 km	40 to 45 min by car	Ask the driver for the Dong Xuan Market end

During festival markets, cars are banned from the central section and motorbike access is restricted by time slot, so ask Grab to drop you at Dong Xuan Market or on Phung Hung and walk in. City buses stopping at O Quan Chuong leave you about 500 m away.

What Etiquette Applies on Hang Ma Street Hanoi?

On Hang Ma Street Hanoi, treat votive paper with respect, ask before photographing shopkeepers close up, and do not block shopfronts for long photoshoots. Those three habits are enough to be welcomed on a street that sees thousands of visitors a day.

Votive items are religious objects to the families buying them, even when they look playful. Do not pose with paper money as a prop or jokingly wave it around, and do not photograph people who are clearly buying offerings for a funeral or memorial. For the lanterns and decorations, photograph freely; shopkeepers expect it and many will happily switch on a display for you. A quick smile and a gesture toward your camera works better than any phrase.

Space is the other issue. The pavement is narrow and in festival weeks shops extend their stock to the kerb. If you want a long photo session, buy something small first; it changes the shopkeeper’s attitude from tolerating you to helping you.

Short on time? Our volunteer guides build Hang Ma into a hanoi old quarter walking tour and can translate what each festival object is for, which turns a colourful walk into an explanation of how Hanoi families actually celebrate.

What is Near Hang Ma Street Hanoi?

Hang Ma Street Hanoi sits at the northern hinge of the Old Quarter, so four very different stops are within five minutes. Pair it with at least one of them rather than treating the street as a standalone trip.

At the western end, the painted railway arches of Phung Hung Mural Street are a four-minute walk, and one of the murals actually depicts Hang Ma at Mid-Autumn, which makes a neat bookend. Just north, Hang Luoc is worth a detour before Tet for its flower market. At the eastern end, Dong Xuan Market is two minutes away for a cheap meal in its food alley, and Hang Chieu leads to the last surviving city gate.

FAQs About Hang Ma Street Hanoi