__NOTOC__
Sơn Tây () is a
district-level town
A district-level town () is a type of second tier subdivision of Vietnam. District-level towns along with urban districts, districts, municipal cities, and provincial cites have equal status. Also by virtue of Decree No. 42/2009/ND-CP, towns a ...
("thị xã") in
Hanoi
Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
, the capital of
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
. It was the capital of Sơn Tây province before merging with Hà Đông province to form
Hà Tây Hà is a Vietnamese given name, male or female, meaning "river".
Hà is a Vietnamese 'surname' (during French colonialism). The name is transliterated as He in Chinese and Ha in Korean.
Ha is the anglicized variation of the surname Hà. It is ...
province in 1965. Sơn Tây lies west of the capital Hanoi. It had a
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
status in Hà Tây province. However, when Hà Tây was absorbed into Hanoi, Sơn Tây was demoted from a city to a town.
It is often referred to as “soldier town” due to the proliferation of army barracks and military institutions that surrounds the town, including the Vietnamese People's Army Infantry Academy.
Sơn Tây's future is seen as being very much that of a satellite city of Hanoi and as a result there are plans to relocate universities and other public facilities to Sơn Tây where land is cheaper and more plentiful. The government has planned to complete this project by duplicating the main Hanoi—Sơn Tây
carriageway
A carriageway (British English) or roadway (North American English) is a width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally. A carriageway generally consists of a number of traffic lane ...
which is expected to be completed in 2009.
History
File:SonTay.jpg, Sơn Tây citadel, 1884
File:Cảnh Hưng Thông Bảo - Dr. Luke Roberts 28.png, A Vietnamese cash
The Vietnamese cash (chữ Hán: ; chữ Nôm: ; ), also called the sapek or sapèque, is a cast round coin with a square hole that was an official currency of Vietnam from the Đinh dynasty in 970 until the Nguyễn dynasty in 1945, and remai ...
coin with the characters Sơn Tây (山西) written on it from right-to-left
A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...
. This coin was produced by the Sơn Tây Mint.
File:Bản vẽ thành Sơn Tây.jpg, Drawing of Sơn Tây citadel in the Nguyễn dynasty
The Nguyễn dynasty (, chữ Nôm: 茹阮, chữ Hán: 朝阮) was the last List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until French protectorate in 1883 ...
Sơn Tây is known for its thousand year old villages, such as
Đường Lâm which retains a collection of vernacular architecture with buildings and temples built using
laterite
Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...
bricks. Và Temple, or Đông Cung, dedicated to
Tản Viên, is located on a hill covered with
ironwood trees in Vân Giã hamlet, Trung Hưng commune.
[Minh Trị Lưu - Historical remains & beautiful places of Hanoi and the surrounding areas - Page 204 2000 "Và Temple locates on a hill covered with green of old-age ironwood trees in Vân Gia hamlet, Trung Hưng ward, Sơn Tây town. Và Temple is differently called Đông Cung (East palace), dedicating to God Tản Viên"] Phạm Văn Đổng
Phạm Văn Đổng (; October 25, 1919 – November 26, 2008) was a South Vietnamese general. A staunch nationalist and anti-communist, he was considered an ally to several Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (Việt Quốc) factions, multiple Nati ...
, a general of the Saigon regime, was from Sơn Tây.
Climate
Administrative divisions
The town of Sơn Tây occupies most of the district, and is subdivided in wards. Eight wards form the urban core, while Xuân Khanh, to the west, is a distant ward, discontinuous with the central area. The district also includes six rural communes: Cổ Đông, Đường Lâm, Kim Sơn, Sơn Đông, Thanh Mỹ, and Xuân Sơn.
See also
*
Sơn Tây Campaign
''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnamese or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus '' Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted else ...
*
Operation Ivory Coast
Operation Ivory Coast was a mission conducted by United States Special Operations Forces and other American military elements to rescue U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. It was also the first joint military operation in United State ...
References
External links
Duong Lam village travel guide and tipsCổng thông tin Người Sơn TâyDiễn đàn Người Sơn Tây Hanoi province and its subdivisions
Districts of Hanoi
Populated places in Hanoi
County-level towns in Vietnam
Former cities of Vietnam
{{Hanoi-geo-stub