Tucked in An Ninh Hamlet, Luong Phi Commune, Tri Ton District, O Ta Soc lies on Sa Lon Mount belonging to the That Sot Mountain Range. Dai Mountain is 8,000m long and 580m high. The area was a battlefield covered by small bamboo forests. In the dense groves are some small shelters of Khmer ethnic people.

In the peace and stillness, tourists can enjoy some huge rocks lying under leaf canopies or some ox wagons strolling around. After tramping around Sa Lon Mountain, excursionists can trek up through winding stone steps to explore the O Ta Soc region. On the way up are rivulets flowing through rocks in diverse shapes and colors. The rocky hills are studded with wild fruit trees such as mango, cashew, jackfruit and banana. The stillness is complimented by the songs of birds.

Tourists will meet Khmer farmers on their way back home from the farms with bamboo packs of firewood and wild fruits and vegetables on their backs. O Ta Soc has a lot of caves that were used as military bases. These caves boast many colorful stalactites.

About 1,000m from O Ta Soc, Ma Thien Lanh is a must-see site. Ma Thien Lanh is a legendary hill which drank the blood of many national heroes and soldiers. Here, the Government built many memorials to honor revolutionary martyrs who gave their life for the nation’s freedom.

The hill is endowed with many types of seasoned trees. From the peak, tourists can take a panoramic view of O Ta Soc and the villages below.

For one week, Vietnam’s tourism industry will promote Vietnamese culture and tourism and arrange meetings with foreign travel firms and tourism officials in Bangkok of Thailand, Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, and Singapore, said Vu The Binh, Director of the Department of Travel under VNAT. He said the department was also completing preparation for activities in international travel fairs in other countries such as Germany and Russia.

“There are yearly events of Vietnam’s tourism. We are planning for big new events this year also, including one major event to replace the Impressive Vietnam program (that was successfully organized last year),” Binh said.

The Impressive Vietnam promotion program ended in December. Under the program, foreign tourists who bought package tours offered by local companies in the program received a discount of 30%-50%.

Binh said the department would meet with entrepreneurs in Hanoi on February 25 for further discussion about the detailed contents of the new program.

“I can’t say about details yet but the program will have a similar scale compared to Impressive Vietnam,” he said.

Binh said the department would launch the program as soon as possible if entrepreneurs and other agencies approved of it.

Together with VNAT, the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is preparing for promotion programs in foreign countries.

According to the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, alongside joining programs of VNAT, the city’s tourism will organize three roadshows in Japan and Cambodia in the first half of this year. There include two road shows in Tokyo and Osaka in late April and one in Cambodia in May or June.

The terminal, built at a cost of over VND200 billion, has a total floor area of 14,000m², to handle 800 passengers per hour.

Under the Transport Development Master Plan to 2020 with vision for 2030, which has been approved by the Government, Cam Ranh Airport will handle domestic and international flights and accommodate B777s. It will be upgraded to serve 5.5 million passengers and transport 100,000 tonnes of cargo by 2020, and eight million passengers and 200,000 tonnes of cargo by 2030.

The same day, a Silk Airlines aircraft touched down the airport’s runway, becoming the first international airlines to the airport.

On the occasion, leading hotels in the province offered special discounts of 50-100% to passengers who arrived on the first international flights to Cam Ranh international airport.

As part of the project, from September 19-29, the film group will shoot scenes in Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Nam and An Giang provinces where the Oc Eo culture is found. The Japanese funded film will be approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism before it is shown in Japan.

Discovered by a French scholar Louis Malleret and made public in 1944, the Oc Eo culture grew and developed in the southern delta, largely in An Giang, from the first to the sixth century AD.

In addition to An Giang, the scientists have discovered over 100 sites belonging to Oc Eo culture across the Mekong Delta provinces and parts of the south-eastern region with more than 50,000 artefacts made from various materials such as terra-cotta, stone, agate and metal.