Ve Pagoda (Hoa Linh Temple)

Ve Pagoda, formally Hoa Linh Tu, lies about 5 km northeast of central Hai Phong at the end of Da Nang street in Dong Hai ward, Hai An district. It forms a relic cluster with Thuong Doan Palace and Phu Xa Temple beside the historic Bach Dang river, and was ranked a national architecture-and-art relic in 1994.

According to tradition, in 938 Ngo Quyen chose the pagoda as a garrison site while preparing the Bach Dang battle formation that expelled the Southern Han invaders. In 1288, during the resistance against the Yuan-Mongol invasion, Tran Hung Dao secretly set up an observation post at the pagoda and sketched battle maps — reputedly by scattering sesame seeds on rice crackers — to plan the victorious Bach Dang river battle. The pagoda's popular name, Chua Ve ("the Drawing Pagoda"), derives from this episode.

The three-gate entrance bears the embossed inscription "Hoa Linh bao tu" with a pair of moral-teaching parallel sentences. The roughly 7,000 m² grounds include the patriarch house, main sanctuary, study hall, bell hall and a stele house preserving restoration inscriptions. A stupa garden with the Thieu Long and Vong Nam towers and a water-lily pond complete the tranquil compound.