Xin chao!

TuoiTreNews.vn - The construction of the 8.93 km bridge, the seventh and the longest bridge spanning the Hong River, began in March 2009 with a total investment of VND13.6 trillion (US$639.2 million). Built with cutting-edge Japanese technology, Nhat Tan Bridge is 33.2 meters wide for six lanes of traffic and two emergency stop lanes. The number of its suspension spans is among the largest in the world. The travel time by car from the bridge to Noi Bai International Airport is only 15 minutes. The bridge is expected to help deal with traffic jams on the Thang Long-Noi Bai route and reduce traveling costs from the center of Hanoi to adjacent provinces, officials said.

TuoiTreNews.vn - The goat is mainly used as an offering to the gods of locals in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, w ith vast steep, hilly land covered with sand and big rocks and shrubs. The province thus features the most suitable conditions for the goat and the animal has become the symbol of the breeding that takes place there. It is considered ‘Vietnam’s goat town’ and goat tenders there live as nomads to take care of their herds.

TuoiTreNews -  Son Doong,  the world’s largest cave, located in central Vietnam, will be featured in 360-degree images in a historic project funded by National Geographic Magazine – the leader in featuring stories about the exploration of natural and heritage sites around the world. Although the magazine has already published a story and images of the cave, located in UNESCO-recognized Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh Province, it continued to carry out the Son Doong 360 project late last month for further detailed publications. The cave has made  headlines  in other famous media outlets, including national television channels from Japan, Germany, the U.S., England, Italy, and Spain, apart from NatGeo, which publishes nine million copies a month in 33 languages.

A young Vietnamese, along with his friends, who were all born in 1990, has completed a project called “Vietnam Free Foto For Children,” which was aimed at taking 10,000 free photos for mountain kids.

Photo credit: TuoiTreNews

ThanhNienNews - To say “Chuc mung nam moi” in Vietnamese is no sweat. But, to  li xi , or to give red envelopes containing lucky money, to the right people with the right amount, can be a real big headache not only to foreigners, but Vietnamese as well. In fact, in the weeks before  Tet , one of the most talked about topics in local media is the perplexing custom.

Past and present Author: Jet Huynh “I took this picture on the occasion of last year’s Tet holiday at Nguyen Thai Binh Condominium [in District 1]. I once passed the place and was impressed by this angle. I then came back one afternoon to take this picture.” “I think such an image combining the past – the old condominium – and the present – the gorgeous Bitexco skyscraper right in the middle of the downtown city – will no longer exist over time.” Jet Huynh, whose real name is Huynh Thu, 38, is an informatics businessman whose passion is night exposure photography, especially that about Saigon.

TouiTreNews.vn - An American photographer has released a collection of photos of Son Doong Cave, the current largest cave in the world, located in central Vietnam.

TuoiTreNews - Astonishing sights on several streets in Da Lat in the Central Highlands have bewitched locals and tourists alike, as scores of flowering trees indigenous to the area have simultaneously bloomed.

TuoiTreNews.vn - Vietnam is projected to become the 22nd largest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms in 2050, British auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report released Tuesday. The Southeast Asian country, along with Nigeria and the Philippines, are the “notable risers” in the global GDP rankings in the long term, reflecting relatively high projected average growth rates of around 4.5-5.5 percent per annum over the period to 2050, according to PwC.

Learn Vietnamese with me! : http://vietnameseconversation.blogspot.com/2015/02/xin-loicho-hoi-nha-ve-sinh-o-au-excuse.html

(TuoiTreNews.vn) - Passengers flagging down a taxi at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City should expect to be scolded by the cabbies if they are to travel a short distance. In other cases, the drivers will beg, or blatantly ask, for a premium instead of the amount showed on the meter, saying a short drive is not enough to help them cover expenses.

(TuoiTreNews) - An entire expressway linking Ho Chi Minh City with neighboring Dong Nai Province is now open to traffic, helping to ease congestion and considerably cut the travel time from HCMC to the coastal city of Vung Tau.

ThanhNienNews - Flower farmers in the Mekong Delta are hoping theirs will blossom at the right time for the Lunar New Year festival, which peaks on February 19. Villages like Cai Mon in Ben Tre Province and Sa Dec in Dong Thap Province are the providers of a thousand kinds of flowers to be sold across Vietnam and overseas. Most farmers have harvested their flowers from the gardens and put them in baskets for sale. Usually they sell the flowers to dealers or transport the flowers themselves to major cities like Ho Chi Minh City, where there is a big market for flowers.

(ThanhNienNews, Feb 07 2015) Comfortable seats? Check. Clean bathrooms? Check. Bunks? Cleanly white and totally bug-free. Welcome aboard to Vietnam’s first trains that are equipped with five-star services! A 31-hour trip between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City has never been more comfortable.  And there is no fare hike. 

News website  VnExpress  has just released a list of Vietnamese dishes that may give you a heart attack but many say are very delicious.  1.  Nậm pịa   This is a traditional dish of ethnic Thai people in the northern mountainous region. It is a soup cooked from a fluid taken from a cow’s intestine, frozen blood and internal organs of cows, horses and goats.   This dish tastes a bit bitter and spicy. It is a favorite among locals during winter market sessions in mountainous areas. 2. Rat meat   The rat here is paddy rat, and they eat mostly grass, sweet potatoes, cassava and rice. So its meat is said to be healthy and delicious. It can be cooked in different ways -- grilled, fried or stir-fried.   Paddy rats are widely consumed across Vietnam, from the Red River Delta in the north to the country's rice basket, the Mekong Delta, in the south.

ThanhNienNews - In this special series, We take a look at how Vietnamese celebrate the year's biggest holiday At Hanoi villages, Tet is blooming in its fullest colors and fragrances:  http://www.thanhniennews.com/travel/at-hanoi-villages-tet-is-blooming-in-its-fullest-colors-and-fragrances-38407.html

Le Thi Trang often feels she lives a dangerous life.  An engineer by training, she now works as a wildlife conservationist and  spends many nights in remote jungles to collect data about poaching and trafficking activities.  The most scary part, she says, is being hunted down by agitated poachers.   But she says it's all worth it.  “I have always loved animals since I was a child,” Trang said in a Tien Phong newspaper report. “There were times we had to spend a whole month in the Central Highlands to keep track of a species. We had to spend the night to get close to them. “The animals were not scared of us, they even teased us. It’s hard work but it’s fun.” Her work, including many field trips to the primate conservation peninsular Son Tra in Da Nang, has earned her a place in the world's top ten young conservationists. The list is published by the Future for Nature Foundation, a Dutch organization.  The Son Tra conservation center ...

Thomas Hooft and a worker on a flower farm of Dalat Hasfarm in Da Lat, Vietnam. Photo: Lam Vien Ashes of Thomas Hooft, the famed Dutch founder of flower firm Dalat Hasfarm, were brought from the Netherlands to Vietnam on Sunday for burial, as per his last wish.  The company from the  Central Highlands resort town said in a statement that its 67-year-old founder died from a serious disease.

Feb 04, 2015 - A tourism cruiser went on fire in Ha Long Bay on Tuesday night, but all 25 people aboard including 16 foreigners were rescued just in time. Authorities in Ha Long, a favorite tourist destination in northern Vietnam, said flames swept through the boat operated by a local company at around 8:10 p.m. while it was anchored at the bay, local media reported.