An area studded with royal palace relics at Thang Long Royal Citadel will be opened to the public during Hanoi’s millennial anniversary in October.

The site in question, referred to as the 18 Hoang Dieu archaeological site, contains traces of the palaces from the Ly, Tran and Le dynasties. The site is located at the heart of the citadel.

The opening is expected to promote the relics further and attract individuals and scientists to preserve them. Numerous fragments of china and pottery have been excavated.

Local experts and scientists affiliated with UNESCO are conducting excavations around the site. A master plan for the long-term preservation of the Thang Long Royal Citadel is also in the works.

Katherine Muller Marin, head of UNESCO’s Hanoi office, said experts and government officials have to guarantee the citadel’s preservation in the long-term.

Marin said the experts and officials need to protect the relics from all potential vandals.

UNESCO has been sending foreign experts to preserve and develop the citadel as the city’s humid and wet weather has taken its toll on many of the excavated items.

Source: Thanh Nien/Lao Dong

At a meeting on measures to attract tourists last week, Vu The Binh, chief of the Vietnam National Administration’s Tourism and Travel Department, remarked that in 2010 the tourism industry would not benefit much from government incentives like last year. Meanwhile, the sector aims to welcome 4.2 million foreign visitors, 400,000 over last year. The industry must implement effective measures to attract tourists, particularly from foreign countries.

Binh said that VNAT wants tourists who visited Vietnam to come back with their friends. Surveys show that up to 80 percent of Vietnam’s international tourists come through friends’ recommendations. He said that the Vietnamese need to impress them with their warm smiles.

The tourism sector will launch its “Friendly Vietnam Welcomes You” program. All staff at airports, customs and immigration offices, hotels, restaurants and tourist sites as well as all Vietnamese people are called upon to display their friendliness.

“It is difficult to campaign for all Vietnamese people to smile at tourists because many people are unfamiliar with smiling at strangers,” Binh observed. “However, the tourism sector and the media will try to encourage people so that visitors feel happy from the moment they reach the border gates.”

VNAT will also launch a campaign calling for overseas Vietnamese to travel home. Binh noted that the Overseas Vietnamese Association in France will propose that its members return to Vietnam for travel this year.

VNAT will choose some prestigious travel companies, restaurants and transportation firms to supply special tours to visitors, including tours on culture and history, traditional art, natural heritages, village life, and beaches.

For the first time, VNAT will join hands with the Association of Retailers to organize a discount campaign in big cities this year.

Nguyen Hoang Hai from Vietnam Airlines’ Marketing Department revealed that the firm would slash airfares between 30-60 percent for some routes during 2010.

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Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Nguyen Thanh Son and Overseas Vietnamese Commission chairman reminded the participants the anniversary was just one of 63 anniversaries the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural organisation, UNESCO, had chosen to associate with during 2010-11.

“We should grasp this once-in-a-1,000 year opportunity to hold a grand ceremony to popularise the nation’s images to the world, he said from Ha Noi.

The commission and Dat Viet , The Land of Viet Nam, Newspaper sponsored the gathering as part of a cultural week in anticipation of the anniversary.

The deputy foreign minister also used the meeting to call for young Vietnamese throughout the world to join the Summer Camp 2010 that will be held in 10 provinces in three regions from tomorrow to Tuesday, August 3.

“By attending the camp, we hope the new generation of overseas Vietnamese will return to their origins; witness the changes of their homeland and develop a deeper understanding of Vietnamese history and culture,” he said.

A requiem in honour of the soldiers who fell in the war against the Khmer Rouge was also held during the online session.

The programme, co-organised by the Quang Nam Tourism Association, Hoi An Hotel and the Japan’s Institute for Human Resource Development, will spotlight dishes made by professor Iijima Yukichika, Vice Director of the Association of Global Hotel Management.

It is aimed at helping Vietnamese people better understand culinary the gastronomy of Japan, which is well-known for traditional dishes like sushi, sashimi, tempura and different types of noodle as well as promoting the country’s tourism-related products to Japanese friends.

Earlier, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) organised a similar culinary programme in the Lotte Mart supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City from February 26 to March 14.

Yoshida Sakae, JETRO’s managing director, expressed his wish that through the event, JETRO would set up more diverse food distribution systems.

Vietnam is seen as a promising market for Japanese processed food and a favourite destination for Japanese arrivals. In the first six months of this year, Japanese arrivals to Vietnam increased by 18.5% to more than 210,000.

“The company will focus on building a miniature of Vietnam and a miniature world,” said Dai Nam Director-general Huynh Uy Dung.

“The second phase construction will be completed soon. We hope that the park will be a pride for Vietnamese people and a place honoring Vietnamese traditional culture” he added.

The Dai Nam Tourist site covers on an area over 450 hectares in the town of Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong Province, about 45 minutes drive from HCM City.

The first stage of the park was put into operation at a total cost of more than VND2.5 trillion (US$125 million).

The park received more than 3.5 million visitors last year and is expected to attract over 5 million in 2010, and 10 millions in 2012, the company said.

Nguyen Van Nam, said he had driven to Soc Son district, where legend puts it that Saint Giong pulled off bamboo bushes to fight against Chinese aggressors, to buy “golden” bamboo saplings to grow them at home.

“This sort of bamboo is very flexible, not as hard as green bamboos, thus making it easy to create shapes at will,” he explained.

To have 1,000 flying dragons each with a height of 1.5 m, he had to grow 2,000 bamboo trees to have much room to select the best. He had to form the dragon every day at the growth of the tree.

After more than six years, the mountainous farmer has finished the work, turning his bamboos into flying dragons heading up to the sky with pride.

Manh also grew three additional clusters of bamboo in the shape of the country and a huge “ngau” tree (aglaia) in the shape of the earth with the words “Hoa Binh” (Peace), all as presents ahead for Hanoi.

“I would like to present things of my hard work to the capital city as a token of Vietnamese farmers’ warming feelings,” he confided.

Over the past decade, Nam has presented bonsai for big events in Hanoi such as SEA Games 22 and the ASEAN Summit.
In 1998, he bent a tree into a line of words “Bac Ho Vi Dai” (Great Uncle Ho) to present it to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

To promote the traditional culture of Hanoi’s craft villages, this annual event will include an exhibition of arts and handicrafts, art performances, a seminar on craft villages, a competition of gift designs for the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and tours to Bat Trang pottery village, Ha Thai lacquer village and Phu Vinh rattan village.

The event is expected to draw 500 craft villages and tens of thousands of domestic and foreign visitors.

The casino can only reopen once Silvershore Hoang Dat meets the conditions requested by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI).

Da Nang authorities were told to review management of Silvershore Hoang Dat and to closely work with relevant agencies to instruct and supervise this company to deal with violations previously defined by the MoPI.

The Ministries of Finance, Public Security, Labour-War Invalid-Social Affairs, Culture-Sports-Tourism and Foreign Affairs will cooperate with Da Nang to consider and solve the issues related to this casino and hotel.

The Silver Shores International Tourist Site was inaugurated on January 26, 2010 in Da Nang, consisting of a five-star hotel and Vietnam’s largest casino. This was also the largest foreign-invested project in Da Nang in 2006, at $86 million.

Previously, the MoPI asked Da Nang to inspect and supervise the Silver Shores project. According to MoPI, the firm’s license allowed it to have 8 card tables, but it had over 10. The investor also employed a large number of unskilled foreign workers, while Vietnamese law only permits use of foreign experts when the domestic labor market can’t provide workers.

In addition to dance and singing and amateur theatre festivals, 34 outdoor art shows will be held in all the city’s districts and towns to serve local people, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said at a press briefing on June 23.

Highlight of the programme will be an art performance entitled “Flame from the Hung Kings ancestral land to Hanoi-1,000 year-old capital city” that will be staged at the downtown Ba Kieu Temple on the evening of July 2. Hundreds of artists will use art language to tell the story on the nation’s founding and defence process from Hung Kings to the Ho Chi Minh era.

Two days later, the symphony orchestra of the Vietnam National Academy of Music will perform works composed by musician Vinh Cat, which feature the history and culture of Thang Long-Dong Do-Hanoi.

The Kien Giang world biosphere reserve was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on October 27, 2006.

Located on more than 1,000ha, the biosphere covers sea, island and land, including U Minh Thuong and Phu Quoc National Parks, Kien Luong-Ha Tien protective forests and mangrove forests.

The area is home to various types of ecosystems with 1,480 species of flora and 860 species of fauna. In terms of cultural value, the area is home to 38 historical relics.

Kien Giang biosphere reserve is advantageous in aquaculture and also one of the nation’s four key tourism areas.