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The mechanics of Hanoi's urban renewal would make any big-city mayor blanch. Renovating even a modest old building can require relocating as many as a dozen families into alternate housing, as American officials discovered when they tried to reclaim the former U.S. consulate, which they plan to take back this month. Nghien hopes Hanoi's new foreign friends will put up the $2 billion it will take to rebuild the city's ancient infrastructure. ``We are not going to be another Bangkok,'' he vows. It is going to be a long, hard fight, but that is something Hanoians are used to.
