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Vietnam
is a country most people have heard of but until
recently few had had the opportunity to visit. It was
not until the early 1990’s that the first intrepid
travelers started arriving. Things have come a long way
in the past decade and visitors from all over the world
are now discovering what a hidden gem of a country
Vietnam is. Brilliant green rice fields, bustling city
streets, thatched bamboo huts, grand colonial buildings,
exotic temples and pagodas, deserted sandy beaches,
breathtaking mountain scenery, conical straw hats,
colorful ethnic minorities, graceful women in Ao dai
tunics, delicious cuisine, luxurious hotels and resorts
and more, much more, it’s all here in Vietnam.
Geographically
Vietnam is a very diverse country with a great variety
of scenery from the verdant tropical waterways of the
deep south to the pine forests and peaks of the far
north, from the sandy beaches of the coast to the cool
tea and coffee plantations of the
Central
Highlands.
The
country
can be conveniently divided into three distinct regions,
the south, the centre and the north, corresponding to
the three administrative regions of Cochin china, Ann am
and Tonkin under the French colonial rule. The north of
the country was the first to be settled and is
characterized by the rich farming lands of the Red River
Delta. The centre contains the Truong Son Mountain Range
running along the border with Laos in the west and the
narrow coastal strip bordering the Eastern Sea in the
east. In the south, the
Mekong
Delta
is the country’s most fertile region and Vietnam’s major
rice and fruit producing area.
The two
great metropolises
of
the country are the elegant capital city
Hanoi
and the dynamic, economic powerhouse
Ho Chi
Minh City.
Since 1993 UNESCO has declared five World Heritage Sites
in Vietnam, four in central Vietnam and one in the
north. The four sites in central Vietnam are former
imperial capital
Hue,
the historic trading port of
Hoi An,
the centre of the former Cham Kingdom, My Son,
and Phong Nha Caves. The fifth World Heritage Site is
the spectacular natural wonder that is
Halong
Bay
in northern Vietnam.
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