HA NOI — National Geographic magazine has ranked Viet Nam's Ha Long Bay sixth in a list of the world's 10 best sailing cruises.
The magazine describes Ha Long Bay as consisting of "strangely sculpted limestone islands and outcrops, dotted with small floating villages and deserted sandy beaches. In spring and early summer the water is particularly calm and clear. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is best explored by a cruise on a junk."
The list also included the Nova Scotia and Labrador Tall Ships cruise in Canada; US Washington state's San Juan Islands; a Pirate Cruise of the Grand Cayman Island; the Star Clipper to French Polynesia; a Junk Cruise in Andaman Sea, Thailand; the Seychelles Islands; a Dhow Cruise through the Strait of Hormuz, Oman; Lamu Island, Kenya and the Evia Island Cruise, Greece.
Last month, the Lonely Planet magazine also introduced Ha Long Bay as one of the world's top ten best boat journeys.
HCM City university kicks off fashion design contest
HCM CITY — The HCM City University of Technology's annual design contest for young fashion hopefuls opens tomorrow.
HUTECH Designer 2011 will be themed Hanh Tinh Xanh (Green Earth) to send the message of environmental protection to students around the country.
Contestants can send up to 10 designs.
The jury, including designer Sy Hoang, supermodel Ha Anh, and fashion lecturers from HUTECH and the HCM City University of Architecture, will select 15 best collections that will qualify for the final.
The finalists have to make clothes from their designs for the final to be held next April at the Phan Dinh Phung Gymnasium in District 3.
The winner will get a prize of VND30 million (US$1,540).
The contest was first held in 2009 for the HUTECH student and expanded to students and young people across the country in 2010.
Last year's contest was themed We Make Change, attracting contestants from 31 universities and colleges around the country and 100 others who submitted in all 332 designs.
Vo Thi Quynh Nhu of the HCM City-based Hoa Sen University won first prize with her collection titled Vu Dieu Mau Sac (Dance of Colours).
Da Nang student wins international film award
HA NOI — Ho Thi Hieu Hien, a student at the Tay Son School in the central city of Da Nang, has won the special prize at the Japan International Film Contest for Asian Children for her film Buoi Hoc Cua Thuy (Thuy's Learning Time), beating out 65 entries from 10 Asian countries and territories.
The film previously won first prize in a film contest for Vietnamese students.
Hien also won first prize in the 39th Universal Postal Union International Letter Writing Competition in September.
Ethnic man wins prize in traditional architecture contest
HA NOI — An amateur design for a stilt house of the Chu Ru ethnic group has won second prize in the Viet Nam Institute of Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning's Traditional Vietnamese Architecture Contest.
The designer, Jahieng from Pre' village in the Central Highlands province accepted the award in Ha Noi on Thursday.
The contest, organised by the institute's Architectural History Research Department, was part of a project to collect and gather information on traditional Vietnamese architecture. — VNS