The 100 have been placed in 10 categories: hotels, restaurants, transport services, cuisine, specialty foods, destinations, shopping sites, tours, entertainment venues, and outstanding events.

After choosing the top 100, the city will showcase them on 40 large TV screens placed at Tan Son Nhat Airport and tourist destinations around the city and through posters, pamphlets, websites, books, DVDs, and computer memory sticks.

The municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said around 2,000 4GB USBs containing information about HCMC and its tourist attractions will be sent to 1,000 foreign travel agencies around the world.

The information about it will be available at www.hcmc100e.info and through flyers to be distributed at the airport, hotels, and shopping malls.

Each group will have 15 nominations. The results will be announced at the end of this year.

The province now has over 40 traditional craft villages, with the weaving village of the Ca Tu ethnic people getting special attention from tourists.

By promoting such villages in combination with tourism development, Quang Nam reaps benefits not only in terms of economic value but it also nurtures and preserves the unique characteristics and culture of the land.

The programme “A day being a resident of an ancient quarter” brings hundreds of visitors to Tra Que vegetable village a day. Visitors taking part in the programme have a chance to plant, harvest and process vegetables like local residents and enjoy traditional dishes in the village.

Welcoming domestic and foreign tourists expands outlets for Tra Que’s produce in the country and abroad. Many of the province’s fine arts and handicraft products can reach the European and American markets in this way.

Deputy Chairman of Quang Nam People’s Committee Tran Minh Ca conveyed that the province has created many favourable conditions for traditional craft villages like providing financial support, and helping build infrastructure and vocational training, as well as finding markets for their products.

The province has so far approved a combined investment capital of over VND200 billion (USD11.1 million) to help craft villages.

According to the province’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the expansion of investment in tourism programmes to the villages has markedly helped raise revenue for the tourism sector and improved people’s lives. In 2008, the province earned about VND770 billion (USD42.7 million) from tourism.

However, in a recent survey, the German Organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) said that Quang Nam’s traditional craft villages have had their trademarks for a long time with beautiful scenery, favourable infrastructure, and, in particular, they are easily linked with other sites in tour itineraries, but the development trends are not sustainable and not really attractive to visitors.

Tran Minh Ca conceded this and added that some traditional craft villages in the province showed signs of a downturn, as they are unable keep up with the market. Farmers continue to focus on products with which they have experience without paying attention to customer demand.

The province is giving priority to the recovery of craft villages, combined with building attractive tourism programmes. It is also focusing on developing cultural and historical tourism in combination with luxury eco-tourism and entertainment.

The four-day festival, which draws on the still-fresh festive Tet (Lunar New Year) atmosphere, is attracting revellers of all ages, mostly from the large Hoa community in the city.

Beautiful lanterns hung up on a string remind beholders that Nguyen Tieu is also known as the “lantern festival.”

Eight lanterns believed to bring luck and prosperity will be awarded to winners cracking riddles.

In a small pool are fish fry for children to catch and take home for prosperity. In the Chinese language, “fish” and “cash” are homonyms.

In the lobby are water-colour paintings by 38 Hoa painters like Truong Han Minh, Ly Khac Nhu, and Truong Van Y.

They are themed on spring celebrations, daily activities, and landscapes in which the buffalo is ubiquitous. In the Vietnamese zodiac, this is Ky Suu, or the Year of the Buffalo.

A stage, vivid with the colours and sounds typical of Chinese culture, saw artists from different Hoa troupes dressed in ancient costumes personifying legendary Chinese characters like Bat Tien (the Eight Deities), Phuc, Loc, Tho (the Happiness, Prosperity, and Longevity genies) conveying wishes to the crowd.

A curtain-raiser featuring dragon and kylin dances was followed by brilliant traditional dances and Chinese songs and theatre.

The show finished with gieo tu cau (tossing a love ball), an ancient practice in which a single lady tossed a ball and wedded the man who caught it. Of course, there was no groom-hunting and it was all in fun.

The event included a calligraph of the Chinese character for happiness written 100 times by Hoa artists.

It wraps up on February 9 with a procession in which 1,000 people dressed as legendary characters or walking on stilts will take part.

Le hoi Nguyen Tieu originated in China in the second century BC when a Han dynasty king ordered people to hang lanterns to celebrate his coronation on the first full moon of the lunar year, according to historians.

The first exhibition is scheduled to be held at the Houston Museum from September 13, 2009 to January 3, 2010 and the second will be at the Asian Association Museum in New York from February 2 to May 2, 2010.

The antiques were selected to represent the specific characteristics of the cultures in the northern, central and southern regions of Vietnam. The Asian American Association has drawn them from Vietnamese museums in Dong Nai, Long An, Ho Chi Minh, Danang, Thua Thien-Hue and Hoi An.

(Source: VOV)