The Bac Giang provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism on November 23 held its first performance of traditional singing to mark Vietnam’s Cultural Heritage Day.

Foreign tourists and expatriates in the HCMC can participate in a poll of the 100 most existing sites or activities in HCMC from now until the middle of November. The aim is to present to visitors a complete image of the city and attract more guests.

The Ooc Om Boc Festival, an annual festival of ethnic Khmer people in the Mekong Delta, opened at Ho Nuoc Ngot Cultural Park in Soc Trang Province on October 28. This year’s event was organized more imposingly than ever with government support of VND1.3 billion.

The German travel company Gebeco on October 16 held a night to introduce Vietnam and Mekong tourism within the framework of the freshly-ended Asia-Pacific Week 2009 in Berlin.

The Kien Giang world biosphere reserve was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on October 27, 2006. Located on more than 1, 000ha, the biosphere covers sea, island and land, including U Minh Thuong and Phu Quoc National Parks, Kien Luong-Ha Tien protective forests and mangrove forests.

The “Mekong-Japan Tourism and Culture Festival” will open in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on December 1, one day earlier than scheduled, said a local official on October 21.

Local people in Sam Son Town of the north-central province of Thanh Hoa held their traditional Banh Day (round shaped rice cake) Festival on June 23 (the 12th day of the 5th lunar month) as part of the Sam Son Tourism Season 2010. Early in the morning, villagers of five wards in Sam Son Town took part in a sedan procession around major streets and converged on Doc Cuoc Temple where the official ritual was held.

The German travel company Gebeco on October 16 held a night to introduce Vietnam and Mekong tourism within the framework of the freshly-ended Asia-Pacific Week 2009 in Berlin.

Vietnam’s first rice festival will take place in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang on November 28, two days later than initially planned. The festival’s organising board said that by October 27 hundreds of enterprises from 30 provinces and cities nationwide had registered to open more than 400 stands at the event.