Completed in 2010 to mark the capital's millennium anniversary, "Ceramic Road" is being partly destroyed to help decongest traffic flow. 

A schoolboy walks past a section of Hanoi’s iconic, Guinness record holding "Ceramic Road" that spans almost 4,000 m through Tay Ho, Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem and Hai Ba Trung Districts.

The mural includes paintings on various themes, made from ceramic tiles embedded along the walls of the Red River dike system.

Construction began in 2008 and finished in 2010, in time for the capital’s 1,000th anniversary. Since early June, over 600 m of ceramic mosaics have been demolished for a project to widen the road and ease traffic congestion.

Demolition is to serve expansion of Au Co Street, as part of the second phase in building an overpass at the An Duong-Thanh Nien junction, which spans 3.7 km, to relieve traffic congestion in Ba Dinh and Tay Ho Districts. The project will expand the dike’s surface and replace part of the soil dike with reinforced concrete walls.

The construction unit has dug over five meters down into the ground to bury iron piles for reinforcement to ensure adequate flood prevention.

Part of the construction site seen from above.

The mosaic wall mural is made from ceramic tesserae from Bat Trang, famous for its centuries old traditional pottery. 

The mosaic represents decorative patterns from various historic periods in Vietnam. Also incorporated on the wall are modern art works, paintings of Hanoi, and children's drawings.

The millennial anniversary of Hanoi was celebrated for 10 days in October of 2010 to mark the foundation of the capital, initially named Thang Long (Ascending Dragon) by King Ly Thai To.

The mural runs from Au Co Street in Tay Ho District to 1059 Hong Ha Street in Hoan Kiem District. Artists participating in the project included not only Vietnamese but also foreign embassies and culture centers representing France, Germany, Italy, Russia, South Korea and the U.K.

The structure was awarded a Guinness World Record certificate as the world’s largest ceramic mosaic in 2010.

A painting depicts a typical fishing scene.

The "Ceramic Road" was renovated twice in 2015 and 2017, though parts of it remain in ill repair.

Pham Hoang Tuan, director of the Project Management Board for Hanoi Traffic Construction, said earlier the murals could not be removed or recycled.