Walk the world's longest ceramic mosaic along the river dyke
3.85 km of tile, Guinness-certified
A continuous mosaic of three-centimetre tiles running along several kilometres of the Red River dyke wall, moving through dynastic motifs, folk art and contemporary panels as you walk north.
Why it's unique
The mural runs 3.85 km along the concrete flood dyke and was awarded a Guinness World Records certificate in October 2010 for the largest ceramic mosaic, measured then at 1,570 square metres. Guinness no longer publishes that category, so it is a title the mural was given rather than one it currently holds. It was built for the city's thousandth anniversary from tiles made in the pottery village downriver.
It is also a genuinely odd piece of civic art: twenty local artists, fifteen international ones and five hundred children worked on different stretches, so walking it is less like seeing one artwork than reading a very long argument about what the country's history looks like.
Before you go
This is a wall beside a busy road, not a park, so walk it in sections rather than attempting the full length. The stretch near Tran Nhat Duat holds the panels contributed by international artists; the historical dynastic sequence runs further north towards Yen Phu.
Go early. There is no shade at any point along it, the road alongside is loud and hot by mid-morning, and the low sun makes the glaze read properly. Crossing to the wall means crossing traffic — use the pedestrian bridges rather than the gaps.