Close to 50 male calligraphers, who are of different ages and in Vietnamese traditional dresses and turbans, show off with their calligraphic writing skills on stones, papers, bamboos, woods and silks.

A large number of calligraphy lovers as well as city residents and foreign tourists have flocked to the festival, designed to celebrate the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year Festival), which falls on January 26, 2009.

Another festival that showcases drinks, flowers, and parallel sentences (the fun art of creating parallel sentences along a giant floor-canvas), is going at the city-based Vietnam Culture and Arts Exhibition Centre.

The annual festival is entertaining visitors with traditional and modern festivities, aimed at reviving the nation’s cultural beauties as well as becoming an entertainment hot-spot for the locals.

Many well-known Vietnamese wine-merchants joined forces with organisers to bring the very best of the country’s prestigious wine to entertain visitors.

More than a thousand parallel sentences were sent to the organising committee this year, celebrating the country’s development and honouring its personalities.

Competitive contests organised by wine producers, calligraphers and parallel sentences writers are heating up the festival. The finest wines will be picked up by a panel of connoisseurs for awards on January 20.

The organisers have arranged gong show performances and wine tasting evenings to spice up the beverage festival.

Several important festivals in the daily life of ethnic minority groups had been lost, and were no longer performed.

To fully reintegrate these festivals into the daily life of ethnic minority groups, the province built on the pilot reinstatement and published photo books in the Vietnamese-Ede, Vietnamese-Mnong, and Vietnamese-Jrai languages, and provided all the content of the festivals free of charge to local people in villages.

In addition, the province also created the spiritual and material conditions necessary to encourage ethnic people to weave traditional festivals back into the life of the community.

According to Cuong, the re-establishment of the orchestra aims at encouraging the development of traditional forms of music. In the 1960s, Vietnam had a national symphony orchestra dedicated to traditional music which proved extremely popular.

To preserve and develop all forms of traditional music, as well as the playing of traditional musical instruments, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has organized a national traditional music competition for solo performers and ensembles, taking place from Nov. 24, 2008 - Dec. 2, 2008.

More than a hundred individual musicians and bands are taking part, performing pieces on the dan bau (monochord), the dan tranh (16-chord zither), the dan nguyet (Vietnamese two-chord guitar), the dan ty ba (Chinese two-chord lute), the dan nhi (Vietnamese two-chord fiddle) and the sao truc (bamboo flute).

The contest will provide a useful platform for performers and students of traditional music instruments, as well as select members for the orchestra.

“This prestigious accolade is wonderful recognition for the international standards of product and service provided by Park Hyatt Saigon. Our authentic hospitality is setting the benchmark for service in Vietnam and places Ho Chi Minh City on the world stage in travel. Our goal is to continue to raise the bar in service excellence and further develop Vietnam as a luxury travel destination catering to the discerning traveller,” said Michael Golden, General Manager, Park Hyatt Saigon.

In Travel + Leisure’s 13th annual poll, the readers once again selected their favourite providers of travel facilities around the globe. According to editors Jennifer V. Cole and Amy Farley, Travel + Leisure’s readers name the very best in travel, from hotels, spas, airlines and cruise liners to cities and islands, along with all the operators and outfitters who make a journey possible. This year’s winners reveal readers’ evolving but always exacting standards of excellence.

In 2008, Park Hyatt Saigon was also voted “Best Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City” for the third consecutive year by DestinAsian magazine, Asia’s leading luxury travel and lifestyle publication. “Best Luxury Hotel” by the TripAdvisor travel community. Business Traveller Asia Pacific magazine named Park Hyatt Saigon the “Best Business Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City” in its annual Readers’ Choice Awards.