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Tet: playing, watching, and tasting food
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VietNamNet Bridge – Myriad entertaining cultural activities are being prepared throughout the country for the coming Tet.


Around 4 million visitors are expected to visit Yen Tu (Quang Ninh Province) this Tet festival.


Hanoi: traditional festivals

The 220th anniversary of Ngoc Hoi-Dong Da victory will take place in the morning on the fifth day of the first lunar month at Dong Da Park, Hanoi.

The anniversary will be kicked off by an incense offering ceremony at the Boc and Dong Quang pagodas, the two significant relics in the Dong Da relic complex. This year’s festival will be more special than last year’s, with a 40-minute play featuring national hero King Quang Trung and his soldiers, arranged by famous writer Nguyen Khac Phuc.

The Thang Long citadel festival will open at 12 Nguyen Tri Phuong and 9 Hoang Dieu, Ba Dinh district.

The Huong Pagoda and Co Loa will begin on the sixth day of the first lunar month.

Also in the evening on that day, the Returning to the Roots 2009 tourism programme, held by the northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Phu Tho, will open at the Hung Kings Temple.


Southern entertainment centres expected to be crowded

The Deputy General Director of Suoi Tien Cultural-Tourism Park, Huynh Dong Tuan, said last year the park welcomed 1 million visitors during last year’s 10-day Tet festival and he expects the figure will be higher this year.

Suoi Tien Park invested around VND100 billion in new works like a spinning tower, phoenix palace, dolphin stage, etc. Tickets are still VND45,000/adult and VND25,000/child, the same as last year’s level.

Dam Sen Park of the Phu Tho Tourism Joint Stock Company spent VND20 million for its flower gardens, which have rare flower varieties; waterway fighting and games for children between the ages of 3-10. This Tet, children will have a chance to play with characters from fairy tales and modern stories, played by the Smile puppet troupe of IDECAF Centre.

The park’s director, Nguyen Huu Trung, hopes that the number of visitors this Tet will be equivalent to that of last year, around 700,000. Tickets are VND40,000/adult and VND30,000/child.

Around 40km from HCM City’s centre, the Lac Canh Dai Nam Van Hien, or Dai Nam Park, in Binh Duong province is a big rival of Dam Sen and Suoi Tien. Around 70% of the work in this huge park has been completed and it has been open to tourists since September 2008.

Dai Nam will inaugurate its largest artificial sea in Southeast Asia this Tet. Offering free buses from HCM City to the park, Dai Nam expects to welcome over 50,000 visitors per day.

On Le Duan road, a special music show entitled “Tet in the South” will gather famous singers and artists. The show will run from 10pm through New Year’s Eve.

Stages in the city will be fully booked with various shows all Tet days. New plays will go to the stage this occasion, including “Murder in bikini”, “Quang Thich becomes king”, “Playing with balls”, “Seeking lover” at IDECAF centre; “Money, money”, “Desert house”, “Skills to marry a foreigner” at Phu Nhuan Stage; “Sudden happiness” at the HCM City Theatre, “150 minutes of adventure”, “If I love” at the 5B Theatre; “Supermodel madly in love”, “Lucky angle”, at the Saigon Theatre.

Lam Dong: adventuring in forest and mountain

Many visitors have booked tours to welcome the New Year on Lang Biang Mountain, the highest in the southern part of the Central Highlands, where Yersin discovered Da Lat.

From Lang Biang peak, visitors can look on the whole of Da Lat city. They can go to villages of ethnic minority groups to witness their Yang worshiping ceremony and immerse themselves in the sound of gong and taste roasted meat and ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through pipe).

If you like hunting, register for a hunting tour in Bang Ba forest under the guidance of a former commando who is now the director of the Phuong Nam Ecological Tourism JS Company, Nguyen Duc Phuc.


Quang Ninh: where to play this Tet?

The local Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said this Tet the province will broadcast live an exchange between Ha Long city and Mong Cai city.

Fireworks will be shot off at three sites, Bai Chay Ferry, Worker Square, and Mong Cai city.

A New Year’s welcome ceremony will be organised at the Royal Park in Ha Long city on New Year’s Eve, in the presence of top provincial leaders and tourists.

Hai Phong

The local Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will organise a photo exhibition about the city’s socio-economic activities in 2008, painting exhibitions, a nightingale contest, and a newspaper and book exhibition in the city’s hub.

Box offices will serve local audiences with some famous Vietnamese movies. Some music shows will be held in districts. Two mobile film screening groups will work through the whole Tet holiday in rural areas.

On the first and second days of the lunar New Year, chess, martial art and dancing contests will take place at the city’s square and the Vietnam-Czech Cultural Palace.

PV