Contrary to the Mekong Delta, the Red River Delta contains many historical vestiges. It is the cradle of the Vietnamese nation. Found here, near Thanh Hoá in the Ma River valley is the presence of an Austro-Asiatic civilization in the millennium before Christ at the Bronze Age called Dongsonian Age also started with the Bronze Age, the mystical periods of Vietnam's history. The first legendary dynasty of Hồng Bàng, would have reigned until 3rd century B.C. From this delta has begun at the beginning of10th century the Nam Tiến Movement (or the Descent toward the South) started by General Lê Hoàn and finished in 18th century by the kings Nguyên.

Vietnam's history is linked closely with this Red River (or Song Hong). It is it that forged the Viet soul. It is it that has petrified the thick identity of the Vietnamese people. At the same time, it is the enemy, the friend and the actor of the Vietnamese people.

To dominate and control its water and its whim, the Vietnamese people had to build and consolidate dikes ceaselessly. These dikes existed for a thousand years and broke sixteen times during the past twenty-five years. It is because of the Red river that the Vietnamese people have been haunted with the domination and control of water. Since the beginning of our era, the Vietnamese people have been compelled to organize, perform, and maintain water managements works. This has brought to the Vietnamese the virtue of being more patient, more obstinate, keener, hard working and methodical in dike construction, canal digging, embankment building and breach filling. In this delta is found a sophisticated network of drainage canals and high dikes that only a centralized state on water control such as Vietnam knows how to realize. It is it that witnessed several decisive battles of the Vietnamese people against their invaders. It is thanks to Its complicity that General Trần Hưng Ðạo defeated the Mongol army by planting on Its bed pikes that broke the Mongol ships in 1288 at the mouth of the Bạch Ðằng river, renewing the tactics used by General Ngô Quyền against the Chinese in 938 (a victory that put an end to the thousand-year Chinese domination ). It is also witness of the Yên Bái uprising led by nationalist leader Nguyễn Thái Học in 1930.

Its destiny is that of the Vietnamese people. It is It that gives the capital of Vietnam the last name Hà-Nô.i (Hà means river; Nôi means inside, interior). Hà-Nội means "On this side of the river". This city was founded by King Lý Thái Tổ (Lý Công Uẩn) in year 1010 at the neighborhood of Ðại La that geomancers believed to be favorably sheltered from the waters of the Red river. It is also called "Thăng Long" (City of Ascending Dragon) for Lý Thái Tổ saw in his dream a golden dragon flying from that locality.

Thanks to Its silt rich in iron, and with its irrigation, the delta is so fertile that it is possible to have one more harvest in November. It is It that shapes the landscape of the delta. Every day are seen women leaning under their conical hats, feet and hands in the clay, children coming from school surveying the dikes, motionless buffaloes in their mud baths under a sun that is sometimes overwhelming. It is It that often floods the plain of Hoa Lư < century. 11th until Vietnam of capital old the>