District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City

10 June 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Shopping Reading Time:  5 minutes

Museum of Fine Arts © Phuong Huy/cc-by-sa-4.0

Museum of Fine Arts © Phuong Huy/cc-by-sa-4.0

District 1 was the central urban district of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. With a total area of 7.7211 km² (2.9811 sq mi) the district had a population of 204,899 people in 2010. It is the historical birthplace of the city, where the Citadel of Gia Định is first built. The district was divided into 10 small subsets which were called wards (phường) prior to the 2025 administrative reforms.   read more…

Shaking beef

28 December 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  7 minutes

© flickr. com - Nick Nguyen/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr. com – Nick Nguyen/cc-by-sa-2.0

Shaking beef or bo luc lac (Vietnamese: bò lúc l?c, French: bœuf lôc lac) is a Vietnamese dish that consists of beef that has been cut into small cubes, marinated with fish sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce, then sauteed in a wok with red onion and bell pepper before being served on a bed of fresh lettuce or watercress with slices of tomato and cucumber. Prior to French colonization, beef was considered a luxury ingredient in Vietnam, as cows were rarely slaughtered for food and were kept as working animals to be used for labor instead. This dish was, therefore, mostly reserved for formal events, such as wedding banquets and anniversaries, although now it has become a common food.   read more…

Nine-dash line in the South China Sea

5 August 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  < 1 minute

South China Sea Claims and Boundary Agreements 2012 © U.S. Department of Defense

South China Sea Claims and Boundary Agreements 2012 © U.S. Department of Defense

The nine-dash line or ten-dash line, also referred to as the eleven-dash line by Taiwan, is a set of line segments on various maps that accompanied the claims of the People’s Republic of China (PRC, “Mainland China“) and the Republic of China (ROC, “Taiwan”) in the South China Sea.   read more…

Nha Trang in Vietnam

9 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Po Nagar Hindu temples complex © Ms Sarah Welch

Po Nagar Hindu temples complex © Ms Sarah Welch

Nha Trang is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh District. The city had a population of about 535,000 people in 2023. An area of 12.87 km² (4.97 sq mi) of the western communes of Diên An and Diên Toàn is planned to be merged into Nha Trang which will make its new area 265.47 km² (102.50 sq mi) based on the approval of the Prime Minister of Vietnam in September 2012.   read more…

H?i An in Vietnam

8 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  11 minutes

Thu B?n River at night © Nguyen QuocTrung/cc-by-sa-4.0

Thu B?n River at night © Nguyen QuocTrung/cc-by-sa-4.0

H?i An, formerly known in the Western world as Faifoo or Faifo, is a city of approximately 120,000 people in Vietnam’s Qu?ng Nam Province, registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cù Lao Cham archipelago, it is part of the Cù Lao Cham-H?i An Biosphere Reserve, designated in 2009. In 2023, H?i An was registered in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network list.   read more…

Hanoi Train Street in Vietnam

14 March 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon voyage Reading Time:  6 minutes

© flickr.com - Takeshi Aida/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Takeshi Aida/cc-by-sa-2.0

Hanoi Train Street is a narrow train bypass in Hanoi which sees a twice-daily train pass close to buildings on either side of the tracks (the railroad tracks take up nearly the entirety of the “train street”). The track was built by the French in 1902 and is still an active rail line as of 2023.   read more…

Spring roll

1 December 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  15 minutes

Chicken and shrimp spring rolls © flickr.com - jeffreyw/cc-by-2.0

Chicken and shrimp spring rolls © flickr.com – jeffreyw/cc-by-2.0

Spring rolls are rolled appetizers or dim sum commonly found in Chinese, Vietnamese and Southeast Asian cuisines. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably depending on the region’s culture, though they are generally filled with vegetables.   read more…

Theme Week Vietnam – Haiphong

28 March 2020 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Du Hang Pagoda © HoangTuanAnh/cc-by-sa-3.0

Du Hang Pagoda © HoangTuanAnh/cc-by-sa-3.0

Haiphong is a major industrial city, the second largest city in the northern part of Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the northern coast of Vietnam. The city is popular as a starting point for excursions to the famous Halong Bay. Hai Phong city traces its origin to its 1887 founding as a seaport province by colonist of the French Colonial Empire. In 1888, the president of the French Third Republic Sadi Carnot promulgated a decree to establish Hai Phong city. From 1954 to 1975, Hai Phong served as the most important maritime city of North Vietnam, and it became one of direct-controlled municipalities of a reunified Vietnam with Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh city in 1976. In the 21st century, Hai Phong has emerged as a trading gateway, modern, green industrial city of Vietnam, oriented to become the third special-class city of Vietnam in 2030 or by 2050 at the latest.   read more…

Theme Week Vietnam – Vung Tau

27 March 2020 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

© Hoangvantoanajc/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Hoangvantoanajc/cc-by-sa-3.0

V?ng Tàu is the largest city and former capital of Bà R?a–V?ng Tàu Province in Vietnam. The city area is 140 square kilometres (54 square miles), consists of 13 urban wards and one commune of Long Son Islet. V?ng Tàu was the capital of the province until it was replaced by the much smaller Bà R?a city on 2 May 2012. The city is also the crude oil extraction center of Vietnam.   read more…

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