National U.21 football event gets underway

The 2010 National U.21 Football Final Round will stay true to its “green-clean and beautiful, “policy, Thanh Nien Media Corporation Chairman Nguyen Cong Khe said at a press conference in Gia Lai Province on Wednesday,

Khe, chief of the October-7-to-17 event organizing committee, also said they would consistently work to improve the quality of the game.

“The U.21 tournament will always be a healthy playground where young talents are found for Vietnamese football.”

It is also a stepping stone for many young players to join the National U23 squad and the National team and help young players improve and make contributions to their clubs, as well, Khe said.

The past 13 national events and three international U.21 events (also sponsored by Thanh Nien) have found and introduced good players who have been key to the success of the national teams.

Some of these people include Cong Vinh, Hong Son, Tan Tai and Quang Hai who together helped earn Vietnam the Suzuki ASEAN Football Federation Cup in 2008.

The organizers of the 14th youth football tournament in Pleiku Town have decided to allow free entry to the matches.

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Activities mark Hanoi’s 1,000th birthday

An imposing street festival took place in Hanoi on October 8,
representing the Vietnamese young generation’s sentiment, responsibility
and love to Hanoi on the occasion of its 1,000 th birthday.

The programme, entitled “Youths ascend with the country”, drew the
participation of 10,000 Youth Union members, teenagers and artists of
professional art troupes from three regions of the country as well as
many foreign young people and students.

The
festival opened with a special art performance by Vietnamese and foreign
youths and continued with a parade of young people from the capital.

A tour of several streets around Hoan Kiem Lake wrapped up the
festival, leaving deep impressions on visitors to the 1,000-year-old
capital city of Hanoi .

At the festival, the Ho
Chi Minh City Youth Union Central Committee called on young people
throughout the country to support flood victims in central provinces .
To date, youth nationwide raised nearly 2 billion for the victims.

On the same day, more than 3,000 young people in Ho Chi Minh City
took part in a programme entitled, “Towards the capital city- 1,000
years of culture” in Dam Sen Cultural Park.

The
Hanoi People’s Committee held a ceremony to name “The work celebrating
the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi” for complexes of works at
Hanoi Elite Athlete Training Centre in Tu Liem district’s My Dinh
commune.

The Hai Phong city Buddhist Association
and the People’s Committee of Do Son district jointly held a programme
to celebrate the millennium anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and a
ceremony to inaugurate a bell of the Ly dynasty at the Tuong Long Tower
Pagoda.

On the day, the Mekong Delta province of
Vinh Long inaugurated the Binh Minh district General Hospital, which was
named, “The work celebrating the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang
Long-Hanoi”./.

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Projects inaugurated to mark Hanoi’s millennium

Hoa Binh Park in Tu Liem district of Hanoi opened to visitors
on Oct. 8 as a project to mark the capital city’s millennium.

Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan attended the opening ceremony.

The 20-ha park has a 20-tonne bronze peace statue, trees, a 5.4 ha lake, a games house and entertainment facilities.

The same day, the expanded section of Le Van Luong road opened to traffic to mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Hanoi .

The six-lane road with a length of 2.67 km was built at a cost of nearly 700 billion VND (36.8 million USD).

The
road’s operation will contribute to an easing of traffic jams on
Nguyen Trai Road , the national highway No. 6, and facilitate
socio-economic development in the capital city’s western region.

Also
on Oct. 8, young people held a giant programme, including art
performances, exhibitions and street festivals across the country, to
celebrate the millennium anniversary.

The
programme started in Hanoi with an incense offering ceremony at King
Ly Thai To statue in Hanoi and an art performance of 3,500 children
and young people of Hanoi and 65 young foreigners around Hoan Kiem
Lake .

The programme continued with a
performance of dragon and unicorn dances as well as singing and
dancing simultaneously in Hanoi , the central city of Da Nang and
Ho Chi Minh City .

Also in the morning of the
day, 1,000 children drew a large painting on the theme, “I love Hanoi ”
at Hoan Kiem Lake , while performances of songs and dances took
place at universities, colleges and senior high schools nationwide.

As part of the programme, an exhibition of photos and objects was
held around Thien Quang lake in Hanoi . Over 600 photos, documents
and objects were displayed under the theme, “Vietnamese Youth – proud of
1,000 years of Thang Long-Hanoi and National Construction”.

A three-day festival of young people of ASEAN+3 (ASEAN countries and
China , Japan and the Republic of Korea ) was
held from Oct. 6. Festival participants took the occasion to boost
exchanges and establish cooperation in many fields.

Young people from the northern province of Bac Ninh brought a
collage painting, the largest of its kind in Vietnam , to the
festival.

In the evening, a street festival is expected to be held with singing, dancing and a parade around the centre of Hanoi./.

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Hanoi comes alive in autumn

Hanoi will celebrate its 1,000th anniversary and 56th Liberation Day on
October 10, making it an ideal time for tourists to explore the city.

Sai Gon Tourist Company is offering typical tours to favourite
destinations in the north including the Hanoi-Autumn season, Ancient
citadels of Vietnam, Sa Pa and Ha Long in Autumn.

Annually, the HCM City-based travel agency organises seasonal tours –
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter – to tourism sites throughout the
northern provinces.

But this year, the Hanoi-Autumn season
is seen as the most attractive programme as it coincides with the
city's millennium celebrations.

"We hope tourists will
have more chances to witness numerous cultural festivities in Hanoi
during autumn. It's a special time," said a marketing staff of the
company, Hoang Thuy Linh.

"The Hanoi-Autumn programme has
hosted around 12,000 tourists since early this year and hundreds of
foreigners have flocked to the city this season," Linh added.

She also said the capital had lured tourists with the season of fruits, com (young sticky rice) flake and cool weather.

The travel agency began preparing the tour last year to meet the increasing demand to visit Hanoi.

The four day and three night tour will depart from HCM City and wind
through the Trang An tourism site in Ninh Binh Province, Hanoi and Ha
Long Bay.

It costs 4.2 million VND (215 USD) per person.

After arriving in the capital, tourists will visit the four historic
temples of Bach Ma (White Horse); Linh Lang, or Voi Phuc (Crouching
Elephant); Tran Vu and Kim Lien – the homes of the four gods of the
former royal capital – before touring part of the Royal Thang Long
Citadel and the Temple of Literature.

A pedestrian route from the Quan Chuong Gate and exploring the city's Old Quarter will close the first tour day.

"Tourists will go shopping at the biggest whole sale market of Dong
Xuan in the middle of the Old Quarter, which is a symbol of the ancient
capital," said head of the agency's Hanoi office Nguyet Nga.

The centre of Hanoi will be the main visit for the tour second day with
a visit to sites around Hoan Kiem (Returned Sword) Lake such as Ngoc
Son Temple and turtle tower.

"The lake is also the heart
of Hanoi and visitors can experience a quiet moment as they walk around
the lake and see the trees in the autumn.

The most visited
places during the day are buildings dating back to the French colonial
times including 1902-built Long Bien Bridge; the Opera House built in
1911 and 1931-constructed Museum of Vietnamese history.

The existence of buildings provides real samples of the capital's varied history.

Travellers can ask tour guides to take them to the night market, which
opens at 7pm and closes at midnight in Hang Ngang and Hang Dao streets,
which were the former silk trading centre of ancient town.

The third day will start with a two-hour visit to the Ho Chi Minh
Mausoleum and One Pillar Pagoda before going to Ha Long Bay – the World
Natural Heritage Site.

The seasonal programme also includes the vestiges of ancient imperial cities in a trip to the ancient capitals.

According Sai Gon Tourist's marketing section, Doan Thi Thanh Tra, the
tour offers visits to the former capitals of Hue, Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh,
Co Loa and the UNESCO recognised Thang Long Royal citadel in Hanoi.

"We have intentionally arranged destinations in a combined tour, to
help tourists gain a deeper understanding of Vietnamese history," Tra
explained.

"The destinations are quite well-known to
Vietnamese people, but we link a string of citadels that were built from
the country's foundation to the current capital."

Arriving in Hanoi on the morning flight, tourists will take a visit to
Co Loa spiral Citadel, which was built in the third century BC.

From Thang Long Royal Citadel in Hanoi, visitors will return to
country's former capital of Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh Province – 100km south
of Hanoi – in 968-1010.

"Hoa Lu was a capital nearly half
century before it was moved to Hanoi by King Ly Thai To. The route will
provide a real historical story of the former capital at Hoa Lu and
Hanoi today," Tra explained.

The former imperial capital of Hue will be the last place visited on the fourth day.

A night cruise on the Huong River with folk music will help people
relax prior to their departure for peaceful mind for HCM City.

Visit www.saigontourist.net for more information./.

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Finnish quartert, Russian chorus to perform

Audiences in Hanoi this week will be treated to classical music from a
Finnish quartet and performances by a Russian folk troupe as part of a
diverse entertainment programme being held to mark the capital city's
1,000th anniversary.

The quartet from Finland's Seinajoki City Orchestra will perform with
Vietnamese artists tonight at Hanoi Opera House. The set list includes
Finnish and Vietnamese pieces such as Tugging Waltz and Vietnamese song
Ve Que (Back to the Home Village).

The highlight of the
concert will be a joint performance by the quartet and Vietnamese
monochord artist Hoang Anh Tu playing Avec Maria by Schubert and
Vietnamese folk song Beo Dat May Troi.

The Seinajoki
Quartet was formed in 1977 by the principal string players of the
Seinajoki City Orchestra. The quartet's repertoire includes classics by
composers such as Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven as well as contemporary
Finnish and international music.

Performing at the
Cultural and Friendship Palace in Hanoi at 8 pm on Oct. 9, the
Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Chorus promises some lively song and dance to
mark "Moscow Days", a programme aimed at showcasing Russian culture in
Hanoi from Friday through Sunday.

The 62-member troupe was
established by Mitrofan Pyatnitsky in 1910, when the group was
comprised of 18 peasants. Today, the chorus has more than 100 members
and has won numerous awards in Russia.

The performance
will officially launch the Walking around Moscow photo exhibition, which
showcases images by photographers who work for Russia's Itar-Tass news
service.

Other foreign arts troupes taking part in Hanoi's
millennial celebrations include groups from Germany, Britain, France,
India, and Malaysia./.

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Canadian scrawls essay on conical hats

Canadian Steven Tait created quite a stir when he was the only foreigner
to enter a writing contest on the history and culture of Hanoi, and to
top it off his entry was written in his own hand on five conical hats.

"My country is 857 years younger than Hanoi," said Tait, a Canadian,
working and volunteering in the field of information technology. "I
admire the capital and I feel very lucky to have lived and worked here.

"Because the city has existed for 1,000 years, I thought it’s a good reason to participate in the contest."

The contest was a joint effort by the Hanoi People's Committee and the Hanoi Moi (New Hanoi) newspaper.

In order to answer 12 questions asked of contestants, Steve tapped all
available sources, including the internet. He even called on his friends
and colleagues, since some questions were rather difficult.

The more he studied about Vietnam, the more interested he became, he said.

"I thought I would have to do something extraordinary with my entry, so it would express my admiration for the capital."

After many nights of pondering, Tait said it came in an epiphany how
his work should be presented: on the non la (palm-leave conical hat)
which is probably as old as Vietnam itself.

"Conical hats
and long traditional dresses are the specific characteristics we
attribute to Vietnamese people. I feel inspired whenever I see a young
Vietnamese lady wearing them."

Tait spent five hours a day writing his entry, a struggle because his knowledge of the Vietnamese language is minimal.

"I found it difficult to write on the hats because they are round and it required care and patience."

He also enclosed several images of Hanoi to illustrate the text and make it more attractive.

One of Tait's colleagues, Nguyen Thi Phuong, said she was impressed with his work and the conical hat idea.

"Steve Tait is a foreigner, but he is very hard-working and always
wants to learn more about Vietnamese people and culture. He always asks
for help whenever there is something he doesn't know," Phuong said.

It is reported that this year's contest attracted over three million
entries, aged between seven and, believe it or not, 100 years old.

Tait said he joined just for fun, so he was surprised when he heard his contribution had been singled out for special praise.

He said he also wanted to join the Vietnam Idol singing contest.

"Let me check my schedule," he joked./.

International Sailing Festival to be held in Binh Thuan

Sailing teams from 20 countries and territories will take part in an
International Sailing Festival in Mui Ne, which is the first ever to be
held in the southern province of Binh Thuan , from Dec. 8-11.

The festival entitled “"Yachts-Sea-Sun" will include an exhibition of
200 yachts of international groups, demonstration of professional
yachtsmen and art performances by artists from Vietnam , the US , the
Republic of Korea , Australia and Russia .

During the event, a seminar on building Vietnam marine trademarks will be held.

In
announcing the festival on Oct. 7, Deputy Chairman of the Binh Thuan
People’s Committee Nguyen Van Thu said that the event was aimed at
promoting Vietnam ’s sea tourism, particularly Binh Thuan and Mui Ne
to domestic and foreign visitors, as part of the national sea strategy
till 2020.

He also said that the festival is expected to become
an annual event in Binh Thuan, along with the international paragliding
and windsurfing tournaments.

With 192 km of coastline, Binh Thuan
has many beautiful beaches, historical and cultural relics and a lot of
unique traditional festivals, which are an advantage for the province
in developing sea tourism.

Mui Ne beach in Binh Thuan is rated as one of the best for sailing in Asia by the International Yacht Association./.

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