Phủ Lý is the capital city of
Hà Nam Province Hà is a Vietnamese given name, male or female, meaning "river".
Hà is a Vietnamese 'surname' (during French colonialism). The name is transliterated as He in Chinese and Ha in Korean.
Ha is the anglicized variation of the surname Hà. It is ...
of
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
60 km south of
Hanoi
Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
on the
river Đáy
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...
.
History
Phủ Lý was taken by the French
canonnière ''l'Espingole'' and 28 men captained by Adrien-Paul Balny d'Avricourt on October 26 1873, shortly before Balny's death together with
Francis Garnier
Marie Joseph François Garnier (; 25 July 1839 – 21 December 1873) was a French officer, inspector of Indigenous Affairs of Cochinchina and explorer. He eventually became mission leader of the Mekong Expedition of 1866–68, Mekong Exploration C ...
at Hanoi's West Gate.
In the aftermath of World War II, Phủ Lý was where a significant number of
VNQDĐ leaders were captured by the Việt Minh in 1946. The city was attacked by retreating French forces on June 30 1954, shortly before the country was liberated.
It was almost completely destroyed by the Americans in five days of bombing between July 14 and November 5, 1966.
Michael Maclear Michael Maclear, OC (1929 – December 25, 2018) was an award-winning Anglo-Canadian journalist, documentary filmmaker,
and former correspondent for various CBC programs and for CTV's '' W5''.
He is the great-great-grand- nephew of South African ...
writes of the area afterwards as 'a wasteland without life':
:"The inhabitants would have had no warning of the rain of bombs. Squadrons of B-52s flying six miles high, unseen and unheard, would systematically obliterate sections of their target, day after day. Unlike Hanoi, which was ringed with Soviet SAM missiles, here in the rural areas there was no adequate defense."
[Michael Maclear, ''Guerrilla Nation: My Wars In and Out of Vietnam'' (Dundurn, 2013) pages 59-60.]
Climate
Gallery
file:Ga Phủ Lý, Hà Nam.JPG, Phủ Lý railway station, Hà Nam
file:Quốc lộ 21B, đoạn Phủ Lý đi Nam Định.JPG, 21B National Highway, the road from Phủ Lý to Nam Định
file:Trung tâm TP.Phủ Lý, Hà Nam.JPG, Phủ Lý City Center, Hà Nam
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phu Ly
Cities in Vietnam
Districts of Hà Nam province
Provincial capitals in Vietnam
Populated places in Hà Nam province