Halloween in Hà Nội: 6 trails following true ghost stories

This Halloween, Ma Xó isn't scaring you with plastic masks. Ma Xó takes you searching for Hà Nội's very own ghost stories: recorded in historical chronicles, in Truyền kỳ mạn lục, Vũ trung tùy bút, tied to street corners, temples, and forests that still stand today.

From October 27 through November 1, choose from 6 trails:

• Spirits of the Old Quarters: set out after dark, passing where three severed heads were once displayed before the flag tower, a prison still housing a guillotine, and the street that sells goods for the underworld year-round. • Mound of Souls in Spring: the Kỷ Dậu battlefield by night, the mound said to hold buried Qing soldiers, and the pagoda built to appease fallen spirits. • Keepers of the Capital Spirits: night cycling past the sacred guardian shrines of the capital and the lakeshore where a young scholar met his late master's ghost. • Sorcery over the Capital: a midnight loop through Phố cổ, tracing the thousand-pound iron curse on a river deity and the doctoral scholar haunted nightly by a strange woman in his dreams. • Church in the Misty Woods: head up Ba Vì while fog still lingers, finding the roofless church deep in old woods and the site of a former prison. • Wronged Souls of the Lychee Garden: south of the capital, visit the pagoda preserving two mummified Zen masters and the homeland of the scholar unjustly executed with three generations of kin.

How to play: pick a trail, visit each stop, complete quests and snap photos on site to unlock the chapter told right where you stand. Once done, your journal keeps your photos and the story of your journey.

A few tips: best played in groups, bring a flashlight, keep quiet, and dress respectfully when entering temples and pagodas. The trail to Ba Vì is best explored by day.

Open Ma Xó, find the Halloween row on the Explore tab, or type the trail name into the search bar.