Spanish photos on show in Hanoi

Nearly 120 photographs of Spain and its people are being exhibited in Hanoi from May 22-29. On display are images of the country’s beautiful landscape, including the medieval walls of Avila, Montsoriu castle built in 1002 atop a 600 foot hill in Catalonia, and the windmills of Consuegra on the outskirts of Madrid capital. Visitors will see scenes of bullfighting, the Real Madrid football club, and the wine cellars and farmers of Lazarote Island, as well as some images of Vietnam taken by Spanish embassy staff in Hanoi. There are also pictures of Spanish King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia attending the opening ceremony of the Office for International Development Co-operation during their visit to Vietnam in February 2006 and the then Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet delivering speech at the Congress of Deputies during his visit to Spain in December 2009. The event is co-organised by the Vietnam-Spain Friendship Association (VSFA) and the Spanish embassy in Vietnam. VSFA Chairman Nguyen Hoai Duong said that the exhibition will help Vietnamese people understand more about Spain and its people and promote activities to mark 35 years of Vietnam-Spain diplomatic relations.

Bird sanctuary recognized as Ramsar site

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap held a forum on national conservation on May 21-22, coinciding with its reception of a certificate recognizing Tram Chim (bird sanctuary) National Park as a Ramsar site of Wetlands of International Importance.

Covering a total area of nearly 7,590 hectares, Tram Chim is currently one of Vietnam’s eight most important bird preservation areas. The national park is home to more than 100 species of vertebrate animals, 40 species of fish, and nearly 150 species of water birds. Some of these are listed as endangered resident birds, such as red-headed crane (Grus antigone) which has a population of only 2750 in the whole world.

Tram Chim national park has become the country’s fourth Ramsar site after Xuan Thuy Natural Wetland Reserve in the northern province of Nam Dinh, the Bau Sau (Crocodile Lake) Wetlands and Seasonal Floodplains in Cat Tien national park, and Ba Be national park in the northern province of Bac Kan.

Numerous reasons to visit Hanoi

From art to food, history and spas, Australian traveller Lance Richardson points out many reasons to visit Hanoi.

Motorbikes in the Old Quarter
The Hanoi traffic is an alarming introduction to the Vietnamese capital, though locals are acclimatized to the chaos. Visitors should be wary of hiring a motorbike straight off the plane - instead, jump on the back of a taxi bike for a thrilling tour through the Old Quarter and a crash-course in road rules. A good rule of thumb: when you can walk across the street without flinching, only then is it time to contemplate a rental.

Museum of the Revolution
More propaganda can be found in the fascinating Museum of the Revolution on Tong Dan Street. Charting liberation movements from 1858 to 1945, there's next to no explanations accompanying anything. But the assorted objects offer a curious window onto an alternative reading of significant 20th-century events, including a small padlock supposedly used by Australian workers to lock the parliament building in support of the Vietnamese revolutionary movement.

10 Vietnam records now recognized in Asia

Ten of Vietnam’s records have been recognized as Asian ones, announced the General Director of Vietnam Guinness Book Centre (Vietbooks) Le Tran Truong An on May 21.

The ten records include:
1. Dong Pagoda is the biggest bronze pagoda atop Yen Tu mountain in the northern province of Quang Ninh, about 1,068m above sea level. Restored in 2006, the pagoda, 3.35m high, 3.6m wide and 4.6m long, and weighs about 70 tonnes in total. Each tile alone weighs about 4kg, the four pillars of the pagoda weigh about 1 tonne each, and the bell and bronze plaque weigh over 250kg.

2. The two longest lobbies with 500 Arhat statutes in Bai Dinh Pagoda in the northern province of Ninh Binh are 3,400 meters long and covered by structures made with 10,000 cubic metres of wood. Each unique Arhat statue is 2-2.5m high and weighs 2-2.5 tonnes with different characteristics. Getting off the ground in 2005, the lobbies were built by 100 artisans and 700 workers.

An Giang benefits from applying agricultural tourism model

In the recent years, the agricultural tourism model in An Giang has created attractive income sources to bring better life for many farmers in the province.

In the period 2007-2009, to help Vietnamese farmers to get more jobs and increase their income, Agriterra (an agricultural organization from the Netherlands) in cooperation with the Vietnam Farmers' Association implemented the agricultural tourism project in Lao Cai, Tien Giang and An Giang provinces with €390,000 funding capital. After three-years of implementation (first period), Agriterra assessed An Giang as the most effective implementer and decided to continue to invest in the second period (2011-2014).

Most of the funding capital has been spent on training professional skills on tourism services for farmers; investing to upgrade, build bedrooms, toilets, repair boats, equip life-jackets, tandem bicycle, improve fish ponds… to serve needs of tourists.

Reducing carbon emission to develop sustainable tourism

To implement the project on “developing sustainable urban tourism through carbon reduction initiatives: experience from Hue (Vietnam) and Chiang Mai (Thailand)", a seminar has been held by the People’s Committee of Hue City, the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (sumernet) and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).

Hue and Chiang Mai cities were selected for the project because of the similarities in social-economic development; in which tourism is considered as one of key sectors.

The project aims to develop sustainable tourism in both cities through scientific knowledge improvement on greenhouse gas (GHG) in tourism sector, contributing to local policy making; offering GHG reduction solutions and creating to jobs for local people.

At the seminar, some carbon reduction solutions were offered including reopening environmental friendly tours, promoting and developing vegetarian cuisine in tourism sector and carrying out waste classification in restaurants and hotels …

The project also includes activities such as measuring emission level in tourism sector by Bilan Carbon tool; looking for opportunities to improve livelihood for local people.

It is hoped that the project will help spread information about GHG emission in tourism sector and apply various solutions to reduce emission in practice.

Int’l Paramotor Race opens in Danang

Twenty five pilots from Japan, the US, France and Poland are taking part in the Danang International Paramotor Race (DIPR 2012) from May 26-27.

They are competing in four events: top air speed, flying to avoid obstacles, flying in formation, and search and rescue.

This is the first time this type of competition is being held in Vietnam in accordance with International Air Sports Federation (FAI) regulations.

The DIPR 2012 is jointly organized by the Danang Municipal People’s Committee and the C.A.T.I. company, with consultation from the Japan Hang & Paragliding Federation (JHF) and the Japanese Airea company.

Deputy Chairman of the Danang Municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh said the DIPR 2012, which follows the Danang International Fireworks Competition, will help promote the city’s image to domestic and foreign visitors.

“Ho Chi Minh City – 100 interesting things” vote to be launched

The “Ho Chi Minh City – 100 interesting things” program was introduced on May 24 by the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City.

Mr Nguyen Van Tin, Deputy Editor-in-chief of the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper, said that the program aims to honour tourist products to open for the tourism promotion campaign in the period of 2012-2013 in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Mr. La Quoc Khanh, vice director of the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this year the programme will expand its voting to include 20 categories, but narrow the number of candidates of each category from 10 to 5 in order to improve the quality of the vote.

The candidates participating in the program have committed to continue to create and maintain attractive, quality services and products with the tourism sector in advertising and promoting the image of the city.