The Red River Delta (Vietnamese: Đồng bằng sông Hồng, or Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Binh River in northern Vietnam. The delta measuring some 15,000 square km is well protected by a network of dikes. It is an agriculturally rich area and densely populated. Most of the land is devoted to rice cultivation.Eight provinces together with two municipalities, the capital Hanoi and the port Haiphong form the delta.