A wiew of  Hoi An City.  — Photo tinmoitruong

HOI AN (VNS)  — The ancient city of Hoi An was placed in the Top City category in the Wanderlust Travel Awards 2015, the city's information and sport centre revealed yesterday.

The tourism hub in the central region of Viet Nam ranked fifth in the category with a 94.12 per cent satisfaction rating from readers surveyed by the British travel magazine.

Viet Nam was listed in the Top Country category with a 94.56 per cent rating.

In 2013, Wanderlust also declared Hoi An the world's top city in its Readers' Travel Awards.

In 2012, Hoi An was shortlisted in the top ten Asian cities for US magazine Conde Nast's Traveler's Readers Choice Awards. The following year, the UNESCO-recognised world heritage city was chosen for the Townscape Award by the UN-Habitat Regional Office in Asia.

Covering an area of 60sq.km, the city has 22.5sq. km of agriculture and forest land and 11sq.km of lakes and channels. The central city was the first place in Viet Nam to host a Car Free Day and the first location in the central province launching the 3-R (reduce, reuse and recycle) programme while promoting the use of reusable bags.

The city created a pedestrian street in its old quarter in 2002 and installed a solar-powered lighting system in Hoai River Square. The Hoai River and its channels feature in a list of the 10 most famous canals in the world compiled in 2014 by the US-based travel website www.touropia.com. — VNS