Book Fair «Mùa Thu độc lập 2026» (Autumn of Independence)

   For five days the book street in central Hanoi turns into a full-scale fair: whole shelves go at flat prices from 5,000 dong, new titles are heavily discounted, and live music plays between the stalls in the evening. It is worth a trip above all if you are kitting a child out for the new school year — the children's section here is one of the largest.

   The fair runs under the line «Mở trang sách - Tự hào Việt Nam» — «Open a book, be proud of Vietnam» — marking 81 years of independence, and takes place around the main stage of Hanoi Book Street. Four publishing and distribution houses are staging it together with the street's management board: Thái Hà Books, the Vietnam Women's Publishing House, Minh Long Books and the University of Education Publishing House.

   What the organisers have announced:

• — flat-price shelves at 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 and 50,000 dong a book;
• — new titles at 30–50% off, some promotions up to 60%, plus bundles and gifts;
• — sections covering fiction, children's books, life skills, economics, history, science and technology, education;
• — a prize wheel by the stage, a check-in point that hands out gifts, and a virtual-reality corner;
• — a clown and balloon modelling for younger readers;
• — modern instrumental music on the evenings of 29, 30 and 31 August.

   One strand stands apart: the Vietnam Women's Publishing House is selling eggshell pictures to raise money for pupils at Bản Bo secondary school in Lai Châu province. Eggshell inlay is a familiar Vietnamese lacquer technique, with shell fragments set into the surface as pale mosaic, so the souvenir carries some craft as well as a cause.

   If you are here with children, this is an easy couple of hours in the holiday without leaving the centre. If you are simply walking, the book street is a calm pedestrian stretch of stalls and cafés that gains music after dark. The organisers have said nothing about an entry charge — every price announced applies to the books.

   Over a national holiday a book bought for 20,000 dong can outlast most of what you spend money on, and this street is the easiest place in Hanoi to find one.