IELTS: Describe your hometown

Topic 4: DESCRIBE YOUR HOMETOWN

Well, I could start off by saying that my hometown, Hanoi, is renowned for its cuisine. It has a wide range of specialties say, Pho, spring roll, sweet soup and so on. Besides, it is well-known for a lot of tourist attractions such as Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda, Restored Sword Lake, West Lake, Van Phuc Silk Village, The Old Quarter, The Huc Bridge, Temple of Literature, Bat Trang Pottery Village ect. Another feature I should add is that Hanoi is the centre of economics, politics, diplomacy and culture as well. For this reason, many important places are located here, for instance, headquarters of various countries, the National Convention Centre, Opera House, Hanoi Cathedral and so forth. Another point worth mentioning is that the locals are kind of friendly, hospitable and helpful. If you get lost here, people are always ready to help. Nevertheless, something else I need to comment on is that the traffic here is totally chaotic. Citizens are not very traffic-conscious (or the traffic consciousness of people here is not very high) and vehicles on the roads are not in any order. As a matter of fact, road accident is one of the primary causes of death (mortality) in my country. To make matters worse, the ever increasing use of cars and motorbikes results in serious air pollution. The situation is so bad that almost every citizen must wear a face mask when they need to go out. As well as that, there still exist many social evils like gambling, prostitution, drug use, motor racing which affect residents adversely.

Actually, I’m living on the outskirts of town (or in the suburbs or in the suburban area), which is located in the north of Hanoi, approximately 30 km away from the center. Generally speaking, it is typical of Vietnam countryside with banyan tree, bamboo, community house, Red river, lotus pond, pagoda, rice field and so on. Most of the locals are genuine farmers, working in the field all the year. Nevertheless, my hometown has changed dramatically from the past. The most prominent distinction is that motorbikes now dominate the roads instead of bicycles like before. Another feature I should mention is that different from low, small houses in the past, there are a large number of high buildings, villas as well as factories at present. In regard to residents, in recent times, they tend to do a wide range of jobs say, workers, merchants, craftsmen…other than just farming. And I should not forget to mention the fact that villagers nowadays are much more education-conscious than previous generations. Parents pay close attention to the study of their children at very early stage of life. To be more precise, they send their little kids to English centers to get early preparation for studying abroad.