Hanoi
Capital since 1010 CE. Survived Chinese, Mongol, French, Japanese, and American B-52 occupation/bombing. 36 guild streets still trade. Samsung assembles 1/3 of global phones nearby. GDP per capita up 10x+ since Doi Moi (1986).
Hanoi has been conquered, occupied, renamed, and bombed more thoroughly than almost any capital on Earth—and it keeps coming back. The city occupies a bend in the Red River delta where Thăng Long ("Ascending Dragon") was established as Vietnam's capital in 1010 CE by Emperor Lý Thái Tổ. Chinese dynasties had ruled from this site for centuries before; the Vietnamese simply reclaimed it.
A thousand years of foreign rule (Chinese, Mongol, Ming, French, Japanese, American bombing) created a city that treats survival as its core competency. The Old Quarter's 36 streets—each named for the guild that traded there (Silk Street, Paper Street, Silver Street)—represent a medieval commercial network that survived French colonial urbanism, American B-52 raids during the 1972 Christmas Bombings, and communist central planning. The guild streets still function, though the trades have evolved: Tin Street now sells electronics.
French Hanoi (1887-1954) imposed boulevards, an opera house, and the planning grid that defines the central city. Ho Chi Minh declared independence from the opera house steps in 1945. The American War (as Vietnamese call it) included the most intense aerial bombardment in history during Operation Linebacker II, which dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on Hanoi and Haiphong in twelve days.
Post-Doi Moi (renovation, from 1986), Hanoi transformed from a Soviet-style capital into a market economy while the Communist Party retained political control. Samsung's massive factory complex in nearby Bac Ninh province assembles roughly a third of all Samsung phones sold globally. Vietnam's electronics exports now exceed its crude oil revenue—a structural transformation driven largely by the Hanoi-corridor industrial zone.
Hanoi's West Lake district has become the city's expat and tech hub, while the Old Quarter remains the commercial heart. Per capita GDP has increased over tenfold since Doi Moi began.
Hanoi's lesson: a city can be flattened repeatedly and still function, provided the social networks that underpin commerce survive the buildings that house them.