Held every five years by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and

Awards will be given away for the best play, best director, best scriptwriter and best actor.

This year the event has attracted 11 tuong troupes, mostly from Hanoi, HCMC, and Danang and the central provinces of Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa.

The Khanh Hoa Provincial Traditional Drama Theatre, one of the central region’s biggest, broke new ground by staging a social play, Tinh Doi Mong Manh (Faint Love), on present-day problems.

Directed by Giang Manh Ha, the play highlights the challenges urbanites face in preserving the country’s traditional values.

A group of veteran performers play leading roles in it.

The host city’s 40-year-old Nguyen Hien Dinh Theatre will have young artists in its historical titled Doi Do (Moving the Capital).

The Hanoi-based Vietnam Tuong Theatre and the HCMC Tuong Theatre are pinning their hopes on old legends from their respective parts of the country.

The Vietnam Tuong Theatre’s Huyen Tran Cong Chua (Princess Huyen Tran) is based on a popular 12th century story about the life of Princess Huyen Tran, daughter of King Tran Nhan Tong of the Tran Dynasty.

The HCMC Tuong Theatre’s Dai Thien (God Memorial) is a very old tale of love and betrayal.

“To prepare for the festival, we have spent a lot of effort and money on the stage, costumes, and sound and light effects,” Vu Tien Them, director of the Khanh Hoa Traditional Drama Theatre, said.

“We hope to draw theatre lovers back to tuong, one of the country’s three traditional arts.”

Tuong originated in the 12th century in Vietnam and quickly became popular in the central region. A play consists of dance, song, and music performed by artists skilled in masquerade.

The festival will also have a forum attended by art and music researchers and critics like Tran Van Khe, Le Tien Tho, Hoang Chuong and Tran Bang.

It will discuss ways to preserve and popularise tuong among youth.

The festival will close on January 15.

(Source: VNS)

Frommer with the most best-selling guidebooks in the US advised travellers to choose Hanoi for their destinations as the city will celebrate its 1,000th birthday and the National Tourism Year 2010.

“Hanoi also happens to be Asia’s most Asian city”, said Ron Emmons, author Frommer’s Thailand and co-author Frommer’s Southeast Asia.

A cultural centre littered with pagodas, temples and historic monuments, Hanoi offers plenty for traveller to seek an authentic experience with excellent meals available at both street-side stalls and fine eateries, the labyrinthine Old Quarter, the area around Hoan Kiem Lake that houses water puppetry theatre and art galleries, said the publisher.

Hanoi will restore important beautiful landscapes, including Bat Trang tourism port, Duong Lam ancient village and Huong Pagoda to mark the National Tourism Year 2010.

La Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director of the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that the airlines including Air France, United Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and EVA Air had agreed to cooperate. However, the carriers have asked the city to send them an official document requesting the assistance to obtain an official decision from their head offices.

“We will send the document early next month. We expect the three-and-a-half-minute video clip to be played as part of in-flight entertainment until the end of this year,” Khanh said.

The tourism sector announced the Exciting HCMC program in February – a selection of the city’s 100 best tourism brands for international visitors and 100 most popular brands for local travelers – as determined by experts’ selection and tourist votes.

The categories cover all aspects, including the best Vietnamese boutique services hotels, Vietnamese restaurants, shopping areas for tourists, Vietnamese souvenirs and gifts, exciting entertainment venues and stylish coffee shops. Other categories are must-taste and must-see in Vietnam, favorite city tour programs and prominent cultural, sport and tourism events. The list will change each year depending on tourist votes.

Khanh said Vietnam Airlines would also show the video clip on its flights. “As Vietnam Airlines is the program’s partner it will help to promote it,” he said.

Khanh said that since the announcement of the 100 excitements, the department had planned activities to promote them via events in foreign countries like ITB Berlin, which will take place in the middle of this month.

The programme of activities is the biggest to be held for the Vietnamese business community to mark the grand anniversary. Among the participants, 1,000 business people offered incense to the temples of King Dinh and Le and at a stele that honours King Ly Thai To. They also planted 1,000 Bodhi trees in front of the Bai Dinh Pagoda.

Attendees also joined 100 Buddhist monks and followers in a festival to pray for peace, prosperity and favourable weather for the whole nation at the Bai Dinh Pagoda - the same site where King Dinh Tien Hoang conducted a ceremony to pray for favourable weather more than 1,000 years ago.

Following the festival, the participants attended a vegetarian feast at the pagoda.

Hoa Lu means “Flowers of Reeds” and was the capital city of the Dinh Dynasty (968-980) and the Tien Le Dynasty (980-1009). The Ly Dynasty (1010-1225) was also formed from this capital city.

Hoa Lu, as a capital city, existed for only 41 years, from 968 to 1009, during which time the first 12 years belonged to the Dinh Dynasty. Dinh Bo Linh was crowned as King Dinh Tien Hoang and he named the country Dai Co Viet (Great Viet). The next 29 years were ruled by the Tien Le Dynasty.

But in the year 1010, as the country stepped into a higher stage of development, King Ly Thai To decided to move the capital city to Thang Long (now Hanoi), where it remains to this day. Since then, Hoa Lu has been known as the former capital.