Woman spends 20 years setting clock on Hanoi Post Office near Hoan Kiem lake

Hanoi post office Photo by Truong Son

The new post office was supported by China and was named 7138. It means that the construction started on March 8^th 1971. The two-floor building that overlooked Dinh Tien Hoang street was demolished. Instead of it, the five-floor building of 51 metres in width with alshlar paving stone, with a clock on its roof, was basically completed in 1976.

Before the clock on Hanoi Post Office appeared, there had been many clocks on the streets. Most remarkable were clocks on the bell tower of the big Church and at Hanoi railway station. But the clock at the Hanoi railway station was destroyed by US bombs on December 26^th 1972.

After installing the clock on the roof of the office, Chinese experts asked the post office to let Ms Yen be in charge of the clock because she was young and agile. Director of Hanoi Post Office Nguyen Minh Chi agreed with the suggestion.

The clock was made in China. According to experts, only two clocks were made according to this model. Four identical faces looked forward into four directions, including the west, east, south and north. Each square clock face was 4.5 meters in both length and width. There were 16 speakers which pointed in the four directions. The clock was inaugurated at 11 a.m on September 2^nd 1978. The echo of the piece of music on President Ho Chi Minh had a slow rhythm that moved the large crowd of many Hanoians.

Before leaving Vietnam, deputy head of the Chinese experts’ delegation, gave Ms Yen a blue print diagram of the clock and asked her to reproduce. She spent a night doing this. The day after that, she produced the redrawn diagrams which made experts surprised and admired. The delegation took the origin map of the clock home after one-day handing over the reproduced diagram.

Since that day, the woman who was born in the northern province of Thai Binh has been responsible for the life of the clock. Every day, she was responsible for adjusting the clock to keep accurate time. Because she did not know the equipment inside, sometimes, she rode her bicycle to the big church to correct the time on her watch and came back to compare that time with the clock at the post office. Twice a month, she rode her bicycle several kilometers from the post office to check the bell and music sound. She also lubricated the clock and adjusted the volumne.

Ms Yen understood that the clock was not only for time keeping but it also became a symbol of Hanoi. She lived in a lane in Kham Thien street, several kilometers from the post office. Despite her days off, if she did not hear the bell, she hurried to the post office to check the clock.

Now, the clock is still running. But there is no longer a bell and music sound. However, people often look up to see the time and compare with their watches if travelling around Hoan Kiem lake.