3231 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Hoàn Kiếm Lake in Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake (meaning "Lake of the Returned Sword" or "Lake of the Restored Sword") is located in the historical center of Hanoi. According to the legend, in early 1428, Emperor Lê Lợi was boating on the lake when a Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) surfaced and asked for his magic sword, Heaven's Will. Lợi concluded that Kim Qui had come to reclaim the sword that its master, a local God, the Dragon King (Long Vương) had given Lợi some time earlier, during his revolt against Ming China. Later, Emperor Lợi gave the sword back to the turtle after he finished fighting off the Chinese.

3210 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Vietnam Fine Arts Museum

3210 Vietnam Fine Arts Museum -
Two Girls and a Child, by Tô Ngọc Vân

Just across the street from the Temple of Literature, Vietnam Fine Arts Museum can be easily spottedfrom afar. Like many other buildings that house museums in Hanoi, it was built in the 1930s as a Girl School for Indochina high-ranked officers. In 1966, it officially became Vietnam Fine Arts Museum where store many of Vietnamese artistic essences. It displays not only paintings, ceramics and lacquers created by modern Post-war artists but many of its contents date back as far as pre-historic and feudalism time.

3194 VIETNAM - The map of the country

Vietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula, bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia across the South China Sea to the east and southeast. Its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. With 94.6 million inhabitants (2016) is the world's 14th-most-populous country.

3188 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi

Located west of Hoàn Kiếm Lake, in a small square within the Old Quarter of Hanoi, St. Joseph's Cathedral is a late 19th-century Gothic Revival church (resembling Notre Dame de Paris), that serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi to nearly 4 million Catholics in the country. Construction was completed in 1886, a year before the federation of French Indochina was established as part of its colonial empire.

3045, 3175 VIETNAM - Hmong people

3045 A Hmong little girl with her bird

Posted on 10.05.2017, 23.10.2017
The Hmong is an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China (where is considered a sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity), Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The Hmong began a gradual southward migration in China in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land. During the first and second Indochina Wars, France and the United States' Central Intelligence (CIA) recruited thousands of Hmong people in Laos, to fight against forces from north and south Vietnam and the communist Pathet Lao insurgents.

3175 Hmong girls with water buffalo in Sa Pa

Following the war, hundreds of thousands of Hmong refugees fled to Thailand to seek political asylum. Thousands of these refugees have resettled in Western countries in two separate waves. The first wave resettled in the late 1970s, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia, France, Canada, Argentina, and French Guiana (about the community from French Guiana I wrote here). Others have returned to Laos under United Nations-sponsored repatriation programs. About the communities from French Guiana I wrote here. The second wave resettled mainly in the U.S. since 2004.

3157 VIETNAM (South Central Coast) - A friendly smile from Hội An

In almost the entire 20th century, Vietnam was the scene of military conflicts, not seldom atrocious. The more precious is the gentle and warm smile of this old woman from Hội An, who bears on the head the traditional nón lá.

3152 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Millennial Anniversary of Hanoi

Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city by population (7.7 million people in 2015). In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ, the first ruler of the Lý Dynasty, moved the capital of Đại Việt (literally Great Viet) to the site of the Đại La Citadel. Claiming to have seen a dragon ascending the Red River, he renamed the site Thăng Long (Soaring Dragon) - a name still used poetically to this day. This is considered the birth date of Hanoi. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam.

3133 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Long Biên Bridge in Hanoi

Originally called Paul Doumer Bridge, Long Biên Bridge is a historic cantilever bridge across the Red River that connects two districts, Hoan Kiem and Long Bien of the city of Hanoi. It was built in 1899-1902 by the architects Daydé & Pillé of Paris, and opened in 1903. At 1.68 kilometres in length, it was, at that time, one of the longest bridges in Asia. For the French colonial government, the construction was of strategic importance in securing control of northern Vietnam.

3075 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - Đồng Tháp girls with lotus flowers

 

 

Vietnam has a strong affinity with the water. Actually, Vietnamese civilization sprung out of the Red River delta and Mekong delta where wet-rice cultivation along with fishing and rice planting was the mainstay of living. Is therefore naturally that the country's national flower is an aquatic one, namely the lotus (Nelumbo lucifera), especially that it is hard to travel through Vietnam during lotus season without coming across a pond or lake filled with them. Pink lotus is considered the supreme of all lotuses.

0109, 3049 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - Floating markets in Cần Thơ

3049 Cái Răng floating market

Posted on 27.01.2012, 12.05.2017

With an estimated population of 1,121,000 as of 2004, Cần Thơ is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta,  being regarded as Western capital of Vietnam. Located on the south bank of the Hậu River, the bigger branch of the Mekong River, it has a reputation for being a welcoming place, where everybody is smiling and welcoming. Cần Thơ is famous also for its floating markets, where people sell and buy things on the river, and can be quite freely visited on board smaller boats.

0109 A floating market in Cần Thơ

Farmers from the region bring their goods, fruits and vegetables mainly, to the markets and sell them to local dealers. These dealers sell the products to shops in the neighboring towns and to wholesale dealers from the big towns. All big boats have a pole. Each wholesaler hangs the goods he buys/sells on this pole. On the floating markets you don't find only people buying and selling goods, but also floating restaurants, floating bars, floating gas stations, and many other floating shops.

2692 VIETNAM (Southeast) - Saigon Opera House

Built in 1897 by French architect Eugène Ferret, Saigon Opera House, also known as The Municipal Theatre of Ho Chi Minh City, is an example of French Colonial architecture in Vietnam. The 800 seat building was used as the home of the Lower House assembly of South Vietnam after 1956, and was not until 1975, after the Fall of Saigon, that it was again used as a theatre. In 1998, on the occasion of 300th anniversary of the founding of Saigon, the municipal government had the theatre façade restored.

2679 VIETNAM (Southeast) - Birdsong enthusiasts in Saigon

Keeping songbirds is very popular among the Vietnamese, probably a way of bringing nature to the city. Enthusiasts gather in some of the city’s parks early in the morning before work, showing off their latest feathered acquisitions. Some people only bring a cage or two, others almost more than they can carry, but the goal is the same - to have the birds learn songs from other birds while the owners read newspapers, have a coffee or pass jealous glances at the most accomplished singers.

2669 VIETNAM (Southeast) - Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon

Following the French conquest of Cochinchina, the Roman Catholic Church established a community and religious services for French colonialists. Thus, in 1863, Admiral Bonard decided to build a wooden church on the bank of Charner canal (Kinh Lớn). The construction was completed two years later and was called Saigon Church. When the wooden church was damaged by termites, all church services were held in the guest-chamber of the French Governor's Palace.

2586 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Hanoi Opera House

Important architectural landmark of the capital city of Vietnam, the Hanoi Opera House  was erected by the French colonial administration between 1901 and 1911 in eclectic style, with important Neoclassical elements, modeled on the Palais Garnier. It had depended on touring artists performing French and Italian repertoire during the colonial period for a mainly French audience. After the departure of the French, it became the scene for political events, as well as the scene of street fighting during the war.

1320 VIETNAM - Hồ Chí Minh (1890-1969)

Hồ Chí Minh led the Vietnamese nationalist movement for more than three decades, fighting first against the Japanese, afterwards against the French colonial power and then against the US-backed South Vietnam. He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in 1945, becoming also its prime minister (1945-1955) and its president (1945-1969). Today, he has in Vietnam an almost god-like status, still being called Uncle Ho. In 1987, UNESCO officially recommended to Member States that they "join in the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of President Ho Chi Minh by organizing various events as a tribute to his memory", considering "the important and many-sided contribution of President Ho Chi Minh in the fields of culture, education and the arts" and that Ho Chi Minh "devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress". In his honor, after the Communist conquest of the South in 1975, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

1236 VIETNAM (Northwest) - The pig market in Sa Pa

Located in Lào Cai Province in northwest Vietnam, close to the border with China, at 380 km north-west of Hanoi, Sa Pa is a quiet mountain town and home to a great diversity of ethnic minority peoples. Besides the Kinh (Viet) people (15%) there are mainly 5 ethnic groups in Sapa: Hmong 52%, Dao 25%, Tay 5%, Giay 2% and a small number of Xa Pho. Approximately 7,000 live in Sapa, the other 36,000 being scattered in small communes throughout the district with the same name.

1055 VIETNAM - Only demons have white teeth?

The areca nut is the seed of the areca palm (Areca catechu), which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is commonly referred to as betel nut (even if it isn't a true nut, but rather a drupe), as it is often chewed wrapped in betel leaves, a custom which dates back thousands of years in much of the areas from South Asia eastward to the Pacific. Usually for chewing, a few slices of the nut are wrapped in a betel leaf along with lime (not to be confused with the citrus fruit named lime) and may include clove, cardamom, catechu (kattha) and/or other spices for extra flavouring. Betel leaf has a fresh, peppery taste, but it can also be bitter to varying degrees depending on the variety. This mixture is a mild stimulant, causing a warming sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness, much like a cup of coffee. Even though it seems to have some positive effects on health, the custom is suspected to be carcinogenic.

0962 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - An Thoi fishing village in Phú Quốc island

Located in the Gulf of Thailand, just 12km south of the (now) Cambodian coast, the mountainous and densely forested island Phú Quốc (known as Koh Trol in Khmer) now belongs to Vietnam, but was and is a bone of contention between the governments of Cambodia and Vietnam. In the early 17th century, it was a desolate area, where Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants earned their living from sea cucumbers. In 1869, the French occupied it to set up rubber and coconut plantations. Anyway, in the late 19th and early 20th century less than 1,000 people resided on island, mostly distributed among small fishing communities, and even at the end of WWII the population was still less than 5,000. In 1949, after China fell under the control of the Communist Party, more then 33,000 Republic of China Army soldiers came in Phú Quốc, but they went to Taiwan in 1953. During the Vietnam War, the island housed South Vietnam's largest prisoner camp (40,000 in 1973).

0830 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Khám Thiên Street in Hanoi during rush hours

In 2010, when officially marked 1000 years since the establishment, Hanoi ("Between Rivers" or "River Interior") exceeded six and a half million of inhabitants, being the second largest city in Vietnam, after Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Besides, from 1010 until 1802 it was the most important political centre of the country, from 1802 until 1945 imperial capital, from 1954 until 1976 the capital of North Vietnam, and since 1976 is the capital of a reunified Vietnam.

0820 VIETNAM (Southeast) - Saigon Central Post Office

Former capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam, Saigon is officially called Ho Chi Minh City (after Hồ Chí Minh, the late North Vietnamese leader) for nearly 30 years, ie since 1976, but the old name is more often used than the new one not only in everyday speech, but also by the authorities. A good example is that on the postmark write Saigon, no Ho Chi Minh. Moreover, the inhabitants of the city weren't named ever otherwise than Saigonese. It seems that in this case, either the mercantilism, or the desire to preserve the tradition defeated the ideology.