Vietnam Travel Articles & Vietnam News

Since the beginning of this year, an estimated 30,000 Chinese tourists have visited Hanlong Bay, marking an increase of 25 percent against the same period last year.

Chinese tourists to Vietnam surgesCurrently, around 400 to 500 Chinese tourists arrive in Vietnam via the Mong Cai Border Gate each day. During the recent Lunar New Year (Tet) Holiday 2009, nearly 1,000-1,500 Chinese tourists were visiting Vietnam every day.

Herbs in Sapa Vietnam, after spending an entire night on the Hanoi-Lao Cai train ride followed by a one-hour trip in a car to pass over gently-sloped winding paths, I arrived in Sapa at sunrise. The pure atmosphere of the early morning in the mountainous area was a welcome sight.

Le Dinh Thong, a tourist from HCM City, seems to be so refreshed when having a herbal bath.On my previous visits to the area, I used to mingle with the crowd of tourists to visit Cau May (Cloud Bridge) and Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall) or climb up Ham Rong (Dragon’s Jaw) Mountain.

Le Guide du Routard Vietnam 2009 (The Guide of the Traveller Vietnam) – an updated, French travel guide from the publishers of world-renowned guide books, is hot off the press.

Vietnam guide- French language travel guide revisedThe book gives readers fresh facts they need to know about the dos-and-dont’s of traipsing around the rugged and verdant countryside of Vietnam. It replaces the out-dated 1994 first edition.

Cruise ship passengers enjoy Halong visit during Vietnam Tet

Cruise ship passengers enjoy Ha Long visit during TetThree cruise ships carrying nearly 1,700 foreign guests docked at Halong Bay on the second and third days of the Lunar New Year (on Tuesday and Wednesday). The Azamara Quest brought with it 660 tourists from France, the US, the Netherlands and Canada. The ship anchored at Cai Lan Port while Costa Allegra and Minh Hoa Princess cruise ships took more than 1,000 passengers to the bay.

Ba Be National Park is an abundant bioreserve area containing the world’s only fresh-water karst lake and several rare species of fauna and flora. This year Ba Be National Park celebrates its 5th anniversary as an ASEAN Heritage Park.

Ba Be lake in VietnamThe biodiverse 10,048ha park – home to 1,268 species of flora and fauna, a series of caves and a gigantic fresh water lake – was established in 1992 by the Vietnamese Government to preserve forest ecosystems in the northeast.

Love it or loathe it, the vibrancy of Hanoi’s old quarter always provokes a reaction, its throbbing effervescence giving the capital’s residents a sense of its own unique character and a charm that has captivated the hearts and minds of the city’s foreign residents, who have spoken of their love of this lively, interesting and beautiful place.

Viewing Hanoi’s old quarterTo begin with, they feel scared whenever they get lost in the old, similarly-named streets, the pavements crammed with food stalls and the roads filled with traffic chaos.