Browsing through the remains of war over Tet holiday

The Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi was built in the 1800s, when Vietnam was a territory of colonial France.

The site was once a village that produced earthenware. Many Vietnamese who fought the French occupation were imprisoned there. Some were executed by a nearly floor-to-ceiling guillotine that still stands in the compound. It was brought from France to Hanoi in 1894, according to a brochure.

During my visit to Hanoi earlier this month over the Tet holiday, as Lunar New Year is known in Vietnam, I saw foreign tourists, especially from Western countries, streaming into what is now a museum, including some with young children. A large part of the prison area was demolished in the 1900s.