The People's Committee of Hoan Kiem District has just informed about the detailed plan to renovate Ly Thai To flower garden and the location of Km0.
Hoan Kiem District and the consulting unit, the group of authors who won first prize in the Km0 milestone design contest, will install the project at the center of the stage in Ly Thai To flower garden.
It is expected that the renovation of the flower garden and the Km0 milestone will be carried out from April 2025 and completed in October 2025.
Previously, in 2020, Hanoi held a ceremony to announce the results of the Km0 Landmark Construction Design Contest (under the Hoan Kiem Lake renovation and embellishment Investment Project). The winning design is the product of young lecturers at Hanoi University of Architecture.
At that time, sharing opinions on the policy of building the Km0 milestone, Architect Tran Ngoc Chinh, former Deputy Minister of Construction, Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, said that most countries in the world have milestone No. 0. Historically, the Km0 milestone has great significance, coming from the heart of the country.
Not only has historical value, Km0 also has cultural and artistic value, the milestone will attract tourists to visit and take photos to capture moments and images when tourists set foot in Vietnam in general, and Hanoi in particular.
In 2009, Associate Professor, Dr. Ha Dinh Duc - former senior lecturer of the Faculty of Biology, University of Natural Sciences (Hanoi National University) - wrote a document to the Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee proposing the erection of landmark No. 0 in Hoan Kiem Lake.
Associate Professor, Dr. Ha Dinh Duc believes that the meticulously built milestone No. 0 in Hoan Kiem Lake will become a highlight of the capital, attracting tourists.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Ha Dinh Duc, there have been many different opinions on the location of milestone No. 0 in Hanoi. Some opinions say that the principle of placing the milestone No. 0 is at the post office to calculate the fee, therefore, Hanoi Post Office is by default the milestone No. 0. Others said that hundreds of years ago, the French had placed milestone No. 0 at the Geopark, now the headquarters of the Hanoi People's Committee.
In the world, many countries have also set milestones No. 0 at famous tourist destinations such as milestone No. 0 in front of Notre Dame Cathedral (France), Moscow Red Square (Russia), Madrid Royal Palace in Budapest (Hungary) ... These milestones are not required to be in a fixed location but can change over time, depending on each situation.
Associate Professor, Dr. Ha Dinh Duc also said that milestone No. 0 at Hoan Kiem Lake has more cultural significance than it has in measuring roads. Therefore, it is not only a milestone to calculate the distance from Hanoi to other localities but also a meaningful tourist destination, becoming the heart of the capital.
