Veteran composer’s new song marks Hanoi birthday

At 82, composer Van Ky can still get the adrenalin flowing through his veins.

"When I begin to write a new song about Hanoi , I write so fast because my love for the city covers my soul," Ky said.

Ky has just released a new song – Bay Len Vietnam ( Vietnam , Let's Fly) to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of capital Hanoi .

In the song, he opens a huge sky of freedom and captures the desire of not just Hanoians, but Vietnamese people as a whole, to raise their living standards.

The veteran composer, who has 400 songs to his credit, has written quite a few famous ones about the capital city.

He loves Hanoi because it has a hidden beauty that is full of poetry and always contains the country's soul, Ky said.

Born in the northern province of Nam Dinh , Ky started his career as a song writer when he was chief of Nong Cong District in Thanh Hoa Province . His first work came out of the pain of a broken heart. He'd fallen in love with a girl from Hanoi who'd been evacuated to his district in 1946 during the resistance war against the French.

After she returned to the city, Ky enshrined his love in his first song – Trang Xua (Old Moon) though he did not know a single note of music then.

Later, Ky, a soldier in the resistance war, was recognised for his musical talent and sent to music classes within and outside the country.

In 1955, he began his music career in Hanoi with important and prominent songs including Bai Ca Hy Vong (Song of Hope) and Troi Xanh Hanoi ( Hanoi 's Blue Sky). After more than 50 years, Bai Ca Hy Vong, the composer's complete belief in the country's victory still strikes a chord in listeners, and Troi Xanh Hanoi has been the theme song for Hanoi Television and Radio for a long time. Ky is now thinking of a "summary" event to mark his music career, but at 82, he is still in no hurry, because "I want to travel more and compose more"./.

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Worrisome drop in tourism as millennium nears

The Hanoi hospitality industry has been grappling with an upsetting reduction in foreign arrivals in the first quarter of the year as it is counting down to the millennium celebrations.

Statistics released by Hanoi Statistics Department show that the number of international arrivals in the past three months has dropped by 7.2 percent year-on-year, standing at 5.3 percent, according to the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The figures seemed counter-intuitive, as the number of foreign arrivals in Vietnam as a whole skyrocketed by over 30 percent in the same period.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has therefore asked the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to step up preparations for a promotion campaign scheduled for August and September.

The VNAT pledged at a workshop on April 21 that it would technically help the capital city work out two new tours to explore the countryside and traditional crafts villages.

The national tourist authority also promised strong assistance for Hanoi in organising a mountain-climbing tour of Fansipan and an international tourism festival in Hanoi as well as promoting the city’s tourism at a plenary session of the joint committee of the East Asia and Pacific and South Asia./.

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Facilities upgraded for Thang Long-Hanoi anniversary

The city is actively improving public facilities including toilets in order to prepare the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

A lack of public toilets and dirty, run down facilities are becoming common problems in Hanoi .

Along many streets in Hanoi , it is difficult to find a public toilet. Many are hidden behind shops and high buildings and some are left inaccessible because they are locked.

In some cases, signs for public toilets are out of date or lead people down dead ends.

Meanwhile, the toilets that are in use are dirty and smelly and are often unstocked. In some cases, there are no locks on the toilet doors which make members of the public feel vulnerable. Because of this, many are left unused which is both a waste of money and land.

At some places, public toilets are used for other purposes.

On Trieu Quoc Dat street , part of the toilet is used by vendors to sell products such as drinks and telephone cards and the toilet door on Hang Bo street is covered with clothes and belts.

"If anyone asks to use the toilet, the vendors refuse to let them in, saying the toilet is only open in the evening," said one resident from Hoan Kiem district.

Due to the state of public toilets, most of the public try to avoid them.

It is not difficult to understand why a lot of men urinate in the street or behind a tree because of the condition of public toilets that are available.

At the moment, Hanoi Urban Environment One Member State Owned limited company (URENCO) has the responsibility of managing public toilets in the city.

"Besides existing public toilets, the company will install more mobile facilities. We will not allow public toilets to be used for other purposes and violators will get strict fines," said Nguyen Van Hoa, General Director of URENCO./.

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Hanoi encyclopedia compiled to mark millennium

Researchers and scientists have completed an encyclopedia about Hanoi in the lead up to the millennial anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

The national steering committee for the celebrations of 1,000 years of Thang Long-Hanoi and the city’s authorities co-organised a ceremony on May 8 to mark the accomplishment of the work.

Prominent among the guests were former Party General Secretary Do Muoi, Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s (PCC) Secretariat Truong Tan Sang, and Politburo member and Head of the PCC’s Commission for Information and Education To Huy Rua.

At the ceremony, Pham Quang Nghi, Politburo member and Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, praised the researchers and scientists for their efforts and contributions to accomplishing the encyclopedia.

The compilation council presented symbolically the encyclopedia to Hanoi and a number of cities and provinces throughout the country.

On this occasion, Hanoi authorities awarded certificates of merit to 20 units and 24 individuals for their contributions to compiling the encyclopedia.

The encyclopedia, which comprises 18 volumes with around 8,000 pages, introduces the city’s cultural and scientific achievements recorded over the past 1,000 years.

It also highlights knowledge about nature, society and residents of Hanoi in all aspects, such as history, geography, politics, science, education, literature and arts./.

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Lyon helps light up Hanoi during celebrations

France’s Lyon city and the French Development Agency (AFD) will provide Hanoi with 340,000 euros in non-refundable aid to help the capital city light up major locations to herald its millennial birthday.

An agreement on the aid was signed in Hanoi on May 6 between Nguyen Van Khoi, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, and Jacques Fournier, Director of the Lyon lighting department.

To the end, 26 structures and locations in Hanoi will be decoratively brighter thanks to equipment to be purchased by the French aid. Among these are the Government’s Guest House, the statue of King Ly Thai To, the octagonal building in Ly Thai To garden, and a fountain in Dien Hong garden.

As the project is estimated to cost 480,000 euros in total so the rest of 140,000 euros will be covered by Hanoi, which is responsible for the installation of a power network to support the lighting work.

Khoi highlighted the French aid as a significant gift to Hanoi in preparation for its 1,000 th birth anniversary.

The French official expressed his city’s honour to contribute its part to the capital city’s millennial birthday celebration, describing it as a practical deed to foster the traditional friendship between Vietnam and France as well as between Lyon and Hanoi./.

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Thanh Giong statue carried to mountain

The Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and Hanoi municipal authorities on May 19 held a ceremony to carry parts of a statue of the legendary hero of Thanh Giong (Saint Giong) to Da Chong Mountain in Phu Linh commune, Soc Son district, Hanoi.

The copper statue, depicting the hero with a grove of bamboo in his hand flying onto the sky on his horse, is one of the major projects to celebrate the millennial founding anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi in 2010.

Most Venerable Thich Thanh Quyet, head of the project management board said carrying the statue’s parts from the mountain base to the top (about 3km) was difficult work.

Installation of the 85-tonne statue is scheduled to be completed by September 2010, in time for the celebrations to mark the capital city’s birthday.

The project required a total investment of some 50 billion VND (2.8 million USD), half of which was spent on the cast.

Legend has it that Giong was born after his mother tried to fit her feet into the footprints of a giant in the field.

At the age of three, he suddenly grew into a giant himself, when invaders attacked the country. He asked the king for an iron horse and promptly chased the invaders out of the country with an iron sword, wielding entire groves of bamboo. After that, he and his horse flew into the sky from Soc Mountain in Soc Son district./.

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Hanoi millennial celebrations to be impressive

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has told relevant agencies that the grand ceremony of Hanoi’s 1,000th founding anniversary must be impressive and reflect the city’s strong and unique spirit.

“We must spare no effort to make lasting impressions on our countrymen and foreign guests,” the government leader said in Hanoi on May 24 when discussing with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the scenarios outlining the grand meeting and events on the main day of the anniversary, October 10.

According to the scenario, more than 18,000 people will participate in the grand meeting and parade at Ba Dinh square on the morning of October 10.

On the night the same say, a gala will be held at My Dinh Stadium upholding the theme “Thang Long-Hanoi-the city of ascending dragon”.

There will be five parts in the gala’s scenario: part I portraying the city before it became the capital city part II dealing with the major decision related to the capital city, part III featuring the quintessence of the thousand year-old Hanoi , part IV depicting the heroic capital city, and part V delivering a message of a city for peace./.

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2010 Long Bien Festival- expat’s gift to Hanoi

Following the success of the 2009 Memories of Long Bien Bridge Festival, Nguyen Nga, an overseas Vietnamese living in France, is busy completing her final preparations for the 2010 Long Bien Festival to mark the 1,000th birthday of Thang Long-Hanoi.

The festival will run from Sept. 30-Oct. 15, with the theme “Dragon Bridge tells of 1,000 years of Thang Long”, a historical account of Vietnam.

With this project, Long Bien Bridge will remember the past with an exhibition of photographs, documents and other artefacts depicting national defence over the past 10 centuries.

The bridge will also host an exhibition of contemporary arts, including performances of street art while flying the flags of many nations.

The highlight of the festival will be a concert and a modern light show, which will take place on the bridge on October 10.

A ship will sail from the old imperial capital of Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh province to Long Bien Bridge and Ha Long Bay. The ship will carry a 100 strong band and popular overseas orchestra Urban Sax. The band will represent the 100 Vietnamese children in the Au Co-Lac Long Quan legend.

The voyage is to re-enact the process of removing the country’s capital city by King Ly Thai To.

A fleet of small boats taking the same route will carry monks, nuns and Buddhist followers who will pray for the country’s heroes and martyrs who scarified their lives for national independence and freedom.

Nga said that a promotion campaign for the festival will be held in Paris and neighbouring regions in early September. The campaign will include performances of Vietnamese folk art and Urban Sax’s contemporary arts.

Nga also has a plan to turn Long Bien Bridge into an outdoor art gallery and a road to walk for peace./.

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Bell cast to herald Hanoi’s millennial anniversary

Work on the casting of a bell in celebration of the 1,000 th founding anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi began at Quang An pagoda in Hanoi ’s outlying district of Thanh Tri on May 27.

Once completed, the bell will have a diameter of 2.5m and a height of 3.5m and weigh 7 tonnes.

The Thang Long-Hoang Thanh bell is one of the four sacred implements used in worship to safeguard the Thang Long citadel and the land of Vietnam .

According to Superior Bonze Thich Minh Tri, head of Quang An pagoda, the bell will start ringing at 10:10’10” on October 10, 2010, the day marking Hanoi’s millennial founding anniversary.

The same day, a ceremony was held in the pagoda to celebrate the 2554 th anniversary of Lord Buddha’s birthday.

A message on Lord Buddha’s birth anniversary by the Patriarch of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha’s Patronage Council was read in the event./.

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Argentinan picture of Hanoi ceramic way inaugurated

A 65 sq.m ceramic picture of vivid colours and images displaying the typical features of Argentina was unveiled on June 2 in Hanoi as part of the “ Ceramic Road along the Red River ” – the project to celebrate the 1,000 birthday of the capital city.

The picture is right under the Long Bien bridge pier and stretches 25 metres along the embankment. It is made of lively coloured lines of Tango dances and beautiful sceneries of the tropical country of Argentina .

Present at the inauguration ceremony were Argentina ’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Religion Victorio Jose Taccetti, Argentina ’s Ambassador to Vietnam Alberto Kaminker, authorities of the Hanoi People’s Committee and the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations as well as representatives of UNESCO and diplomatic agencies in Hanoi .

Despite geographical distance, Vietnamese and Argentinan artists and people have joined in practical activities to help promote the friendship between the two countries, said Ambassador Alberto Kaminker.

Earlier, a similar ceramic mosaic was inaugurated in central Rauson, the capital city of the southern province of Chubut , Argentina , on May 18. The “New Era” mural is a gift from the artists and craftsmen of the “ Ceramic Road along the Red River” project for the city on the occasion of the 200 th anniversary of Argentina ’s May Revolution (May 25, 1810).

The 8.6-m long and 1.2-m high picture is placed at the entrance of Chubut province’s administrative building. It has historical and cultural themes, featuring images of Vietnam and Argentina including Vietnam ’s peach blossom and Khue Van Cac (Pavilion of Constellation of Literature), Ceibo flowers of Argentina , Rawson city church and a battleship./.

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