There is a street in Hanoi whose name plate reads “Uop Lanh,” or “Chilled,” but do not expect to find cooled beer there.

A photo showing the strange street name was posted on Facebook on Wednesday, when Vietnam celebrated its 70^th National Day, surprising and amusing other local Internet users.

The “Chilled Street” lies adjacent to Ham Nghi Street in the capital city, according to the photo.

Streets in Vietnam are commonly named after great people, national heroes, or historic events.

Professor Ha Dinh Duc, a Hanoi resident, said the photo was captured by a friend of his, Quach Hien, who uploaded it on his Facebook on Wednesday.

Duc said he was so intrigued by the photo that he shared it on his own Facebook page, while notifying Truong Minh Tien, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports of the bizarre street name.

“I informed Truong Minh Tien of it and asked him to check if the Uop Lanh Street is really in the list of approved street names in Hanoi,” Duc told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday.

A visit by Tuoi Tre yesterday found that Uop Lanh Street lies near Cau Dien Street in Nam Tu Liem District. The street extends a little more than one kilometer and is in fact a dead road.

Asked why the street is named ‘Chilled,’ some locals appeared surprised and said they had no idea.

The weird street name plate appeared around a fortnight ago, according to local residents. People usually laugh at the name whenever they come across it, they added.

Other locals revealed that they used to call the street “Uop Lanh” or “Dong Lanh” (Frozen) as there used to be a major ice making facility nearby a few years ago. The facility produced ices used in food preservations for Hanoi, they added.

When Tuoi Tre came back on Friday afternoon, the “Chilled Street” name plate had been removed.

Tien, the deputy director of the city’s culture department, did not respond to Tuoi Tre’s request for comment later the same day.

To Van Dong, director of the department, told Tuoi Tre he had filed an urgent dispatch to the administration of Nam Tu Liem District to look into the issue shortly after he was briefed about it.

“I also find the name unusual,” he said.

A board in charge of cultural and social issues with the Hanoi People’s Council is responsible for approving proposals to name streets in the capital city.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, head of the board, asserted that in the last five years she had not received any proposition to name a street “Uop Lanh.”

“I do not know where the name comes from, but it is definitely not a name approved by the council,” she told Tuoi Tre.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!