HA NOI — Ha Long Bay, in the northern province of Quang Ninh, has been listed as one of the 10 most outstanding coastal destinations for tourists to visit by the Lonely Planet Travel Guide, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) announced.
The other nine locations were the Norwegian Fjords, the Amazon River, the Franklin River in Australia, the Quetico Provincial Park in Canada, the Kerala backwaters in India, New Zealand's Milford Sound Bay, the Greek islands, Disco Bay in Greenland, and the Galapagos Archipelago off the coast of Ecuador.
About 500 ships ply the waters of Ha Long Bay, carrying millions of tourists every year, according to the VNAT. Quang Ninh has attracted 5.3 million visitors so far this year, 2.5 million of whom visited Ha Long Bay.
First coffee museum to open in Central Highlands
DAC LAC — Viet Nam's first coffee museum will open soon in the Central Highlands city of Buon Ma Thuot.
More than 10,000 rare exhibits that illustrate the history of coffee have been transferred to the museum's proprietor – the Trung Nguyen joint stock company – from the world's biggest coffee museum owner Jens Burg of Germany.
About 100 objects from the collection are on display at Trung Nguyen Coffee, No 7 Nguyen Van Chiem Street, District 1, HCM City. Visitors are shown how coffee has been made from the beans to a cup throughout history.
"We define Buon Ma Thuot with its variety of coffee and its contribution to building Viet Nam coffee's world brand as coffee city," said Dac Lac Provincial People's Committee deputy chairman Dinh Van Khiet.
Brazil, Ethiopia, Britain, Germany and Japan have coffee museums.
Japanese floral art school to open in Ha Noi
HA NOI — A representative of the Binh Minh Technology and Trading JSC has announced its intention to open a Japanese style Ikebana floral art vocational training school at a floral art performance on Sunday.
The school will promote relations between Viet Nam and Japan and hopefully provide new jobs for Vietnamese rural labourers.
At the show, Binh Minh Co and Hanel Limited Co handed out aid to victims of the floodings in the Central provinces.
The show was sponsored by the Ha Noi People's Committee, the Japan-Viet Nam Friendship Association and Binh Minh Co.
HCM City hosts exhibition of landscape paintings
HCM City — Paintings of Viet Nam's beautiful landscapes by 12 contemporary painters are on exhibition in HCM City until next Thursday.
The paintings depict Viet Nam's landscapes in many different areas such as the old quarter in Ha Noi, Hoi An ancient town, the Central Highlands with Truong Son Mountain Range, peaceful villages in the north, and the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
The exhibition has been co-organised by the Sunwah Fund under the Sunwah Group in Hong Kong and the HCM City Fine Arts Museum.
The exhibition's organising board also holds painting courses for children, including pupils from the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for visually-impaired children. — VNS