According to the organising board, the figure is double that of last year’s camp.

The cultural summer camp 2009 which took place from July 24-26 included Vietnamese martial arts, folk singing and other sporting activities such as boating and volleyball.

It is seen as an opportunity for Vietnamese expatriates to meet each other and enable Vietnamese teenagers to make friends and speak Vietnamese. It will also help to maintain the Vietnamese cultural identity in Finland as well as creating stronger connections amongst the Vietnamese community in the country.

Many cultural activities will also be held for the Vietnamese community in Finland during the Tet holiday and mid autumn festival, said the organising board from the Vietnamese embassy in Finland, the Vietnamese’s Association and the Vietnamese Youth and Student Association.

The function, attended by member representatives from Hanoi, Bangkok, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, New Delhi, Jakarta and Seoul, is expected to review its members’ cooperation in tourism development over the last year and reach agreement on new tourism projects. It also plans to admit new members and issue a joint declaration.

Along with the six-day meeting are activities aimed at marketing the tourism products of Asian major cities, including Hanoi. A photograph exhibition on “Hanoi – a thousand-year culture” has also opened to the public.

(Source: VNA

The book named “Discovering craft villages in Vietnam: ten itineraries around Hanoi” is a remarkable collection of writings on the vibrant communities surrounding the capital.

Spending several years working in Vietnam, the authors visited various craft villages to learn more about the crafts, the people, traditions and heritage of the villages. What they bring to the book is illustrated by photographer Francois Carlet-Soulages.

The book, the fruit of several years’ research, proposes 10 itineraries, blending potted histories, legends, descriptions of craft techniques, guided walks and maps, all designed to introduce readers to more than 40 craft villages located in Hanoi, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces. Many of these are little known to outsiders, but none are very far from the capital.

The villages around Hanoi possess a rich cultural, architectural and craft heritage. Less than an hour’s journey from the capital are more than 500 specialist craft villages, producing an array of religious and artistic objects as well as food products, industrial goods, textiles, basketwork and much more. These traditions have survived many vicissitudes. Today, they constitute the basis of material, social and spiritual culture among the village communities of the Hong (Red) River Delta.

The artisans themselves and their local institutions perceive cultural tourism as a way of further improving the fortunes of craft village communities.

“They also see it as an opportunity to attract wider attention to their heritage but, until recently, few guides or tourists ventured into these villages, some of which are lost beyond a maze or poorly signposted roads and tracks amid the rice paddies of Hanoi’s hinterland,” the authors write.

The 300-page book published by the The Gioi (World) Publishing House costs VND200,000 for the Vietnamese edition and USD16.7 for the English and French versions.

The book’s publishing was sponsored by the Research Institute for Development, the Ford Foundation, French Development Agency, French Culture Centre in Vietnam, Wallonia-Brusssels Delegation to Hanoi and Hermes Group.

Participants to the workshop proposed that the government enact incentive policies for the development of caravan tourism with top priority being given to legal documents on the organisation and management of means of road transport driven by foreign tourists to Vietnam.

The delegates, including representatives from countries along the east-west economic corridor including Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, said that the government should speed up the tempo of construction and upgrading of the transport infrastructure and roads linking international border gates to the country’s hubs.

Further efforts should be made to increase the coordination between Vietnam and neighbouring countries to create the most favourable conditions for tourists on trans-Vietnam routes, the east-west corridor, as well as the one economic belt and two corridors to the north.

Vietnam borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, having a long land border of 4,550km. The Southeast Asian nation now boasts 25 border provinces from the north to the south and around 100 international, principal and auxiliary border gates. Those are seen as an advantage for Vietnam to integrate into the region and develop tourism from ASEAN member nations in particular and the world in general.