I've decided to take a break from this little "Ethnic War" that's going on between some of the Chinese and Vietnamese members of this forum and try to create more cultural-related topics that won't cause as much controversey.

Some of you may have seen the topic I created in Chinese forum titled "Pictures of China". I love travelling and was wondering if anyone here has been to Vietnam and taken pictures of that beautiful country? Or maybe you have seen pictures of Vietnam online and would like to share with us here.

I'll start.


Saigon at night.


A pagoda in Saigon.



Saigon's downtown.

kulong,

Vietnam is a third-world country so you won't find that many beautiful high skyscrapers like Singapore. But one thing that i notice about Vietnam is that around 10 years ago most of Vietnam were filled with bicycles but now you'll see that "motor bikes" in most of the streets. Considering the many wars and sanctions that Vietnam has to endure throughout this century, I think Vietnam has been progressing pretty quick in a short period of time.

In 2003, the GDP per capita of Vietnam grew by around 7%, which was second only to China of 9%.

China is considered a third-world country as well but there are plenty of skyscrapers in Chinese cities. Just go to the Pictures of China thread in the Chinese forum.

But that's not the point. Where did I ever say I expected to see skylines of Vietnamese cities. Vietnam has many other beautiful scenaries like the Ha Long bay.



I agree that Vietnam is progressing quite rapidly, which is why I'm interested in seeing pictures of Vietnam in the first place.

The only pictures of Vietnam I've seen before are mostly during or prior to the Vietnam War. I'd like to see what the "modern Vietnam" looks like, and not just the cities either.

---

On a separate note. What are your feelings about Vietnamese switching from bicycles to motorbikes?

In recent years, more and more Chinese are buying cars and replacing bicycle as the main method of transportation. While this is good for automobile manufacturers, auto shops, and other automobile-related industries, more cars on the streets means worse traffic congestions, more pollution, more parking problems, and perhaps more accidents.

While most Chinese cities already have convinent mass transportation system such as buses, subway systems, or lightrail systems, many still prefer to drive their own car because they believe it's what "rich people do".

Anyway, I believe riding bicycles is much more healthy not only to the rider but also to the environment. Also bicycles take up much less space than cars and cheaper to maintain. In the end, people will be healthier, the environment will be cleaner, people will be able to spend the money they saved from buying a bicycle instead of a car on other things that really matter like further education.

Where is that? It's beautiful especially with the fog. Most of the rooftops look European though.

it is the city of Sapa. This city is very close to the Sino-Viet border

I see. I found some other pictures of Sapa.

actually saigon was filled with cars before 1975

I heard the same from my ex-girlfriend's parents, who used to be wealthy businesspeople before the Viet Cong invaded and took over South Vietnam.

Nha TRang beach



Sorry for 56kers ^__^

Old Saigon under French rule:

Names of students passed the civil examinations written on the turtle's stone:



I just relized my last name Pham (Fan) in chinese is on there... but then PHam is a pretty common last name :P

Hoi An- This is the town traded with Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portugal, France and more. Fortunately untouched by the war, however it's just been restored for a few year:

Japanese merchant house:



Western merchant house (either dutch, portugal or France):



Guangdong Merchant house:



Old Intact Vietnamese merchant house:

This is the pagoda that in new year my mom used to go It's called Chua Xa Loi

Champa Ruins in Vietnam:

Saigon, sorry for all the pictures lol

This seems to be a Chinese building. The sign on the right says "Yongxing Kezhan" meaning the "Yongxing hotel". The name "Yongxing" is "Vinh Hung" in Vietnamese. This is a typical Chinese name meaning "Forever Prosperous".


It's interesting that a good majority of these surnames are Ruan, or Nguyen

That pagoda looks relatively new.

oops sorry...:P it looks japanese but nevermind

Imperial City in Vietnam:

Actually, that's Chinese architecture, not Japanese

Chinese use red laterns while Japanese tend to use white laterns. Chinese buildings, important ones at least, tend to have a large sign slanted downwards above the front doors, I don't think Japanese buildings are known for that. Also, Japanese tend to use slide doors and "paper windows" while Chinese tend to use conventional doors (that open outwards) and glass windows.

East Asian architecture are all very similar. To untrained eyes, one would have a hard time differentiate a Chinese building from a Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese one and vice versa.

Southeast Asian architecture tend to be much more distinct with their pointed roofs and curves.

it's sad that half of the place right now is used for rice field vietnam goverment already began to restore, but not much has been done.

WOW!

Beautiful indeed.

Thanks guys.

First, I thought city of Sapa is Dalat. Nice, but I would live in Saigon. Sapa city is too close to the Chinese

Yeah, Temple of Confucius was built under Ly dynasty almost a thousand years ago. Only people who passed the civil exam were named on the stone. The civil exam is equivalent to Ph.D.

Champa ruins in Vietnam

Thanks Menikani for posting the Emperial city of Hue.
The Citadel was built under Nguyen (Ruan) Dynasty (1803-1945), the architecture is close to Ming dynasty in China But the first King Gia Long decided to chose Hue, located in the middle of Vietnam as his capital, which is far away from the Chinese

I would do the same if I were King of Vietnam

I hope the Vietnamese government will be able to restore the glory to the Vietnamese Imperial City. It looks like a small-scale Beijing's Forbidden City.

is that a racist statement?

It is small scale of The Chinese forbidden city

anyway.. ^__^ vietnamese just recovered artifacts of the old capital (Hanoi).. They actually found a floor of Ly dynasty while building a new congress house.. The architecture of this one is a little bit different than chinese (but still greatly influenced by Chinese), heard it's also influenced by the Cham but not sure.


Anyway Japanese bridge in Hoi An:



No one is quite sure of the exact age of this bridge, but it was probably constructed in the early years of the Edo Shogunate (the early 17th century). The covered bridge, also known as the Pagoda Bridge, was built by Japanese craftsmen who were part of a larger community of Japanese merchants active in Hoi-An.

Japanese settled in this town in large numbers following a treaty with local Nguyen lords signed in the early 1600s. Hoi-an at that time was underdeveloped, but the Japanese envisioned transforming the town into a great trading center. The Nguyen Lords allowed the Japanese to construct streets, pagodas, and other infrastructure, along with housing for the merchants. The bridge is one of many such treasures still extant from that era.

The bridge doubles as a temple, with shrines to several deities located inside.

Not really, but living next to a giant and the Chinese are unpredictable (j/k)

Yes, I noticed that too. From far away (the first picture), the architecture looked purely Chinese. However, some of the details seem to possess non-Chinese designs.

not really just for protection from chinese. Under the nguyen dynasty, vietnam expanded southward. IT was a smart move to move the capital to the central vietnam... for unifying the country after North and South war...


Yes, Vietnam actually had a war between North and South before the Vietnam War. Nguyen and Trinh (my mom's last name) was the two rival lord family. Nguyen lords were in the south while Trinh lords were in the north. Trinh lords supported the dying Le dynasty and its puppet Le king. Later, Trinh was defeated

I guess if I were to live in China, I wouldn't want to live near the North Korean border or in Xinjiang bordering Afganistan and other Central Asian nations either.

Next time, try to be careful with your words. As you know, the "Ethnic War" has caused many of us to be more sensitive toward these kind of things.

Hue capital before the War.

These old photos might be slow to load:

Nam Phuong Hoang Hau - Queen of the south, the last queen of Nguyen dynasty (her title)

the city with the fog is really very nice. Sapa is it? heh i'll look for some pics of that place

foggy day in Sapa

a church in Saigon city. I think this church is dedicated to Saint Joan of Arc, but i'm not sure.

no..this is Nha tho duc ba... uhm the church of mary.. you can see Mary holding the earth in that picture

tôi nghe nói hoàng hậu Nam Phương là người Tàu phải không ??

i don't know

On March 20, 1934, at the imperial city of Hue, Bao Dai married Jeanne Marie-Thérèse (Mariette) Nguyen Huu-Hao Thi Lan (1914-1963), who was renamed Hoang Hau Nam Phuong.

She's probably not chinese

I thought she looked a little like Northern Asian, either Han or Manchu, but only in the second picture. She looked Kinh in the first picture. The third isn't too clear.

Anyway, so Hue used to be Vietnam's Imperial City?

I've heard from my ex-gf's family that people from Hue are considered "weird" like they speak "weird" and they act "weird". Is this just a myth, misunderstanding, or is there some kind of historical background to this? BTW, my ex-gf's family was from Saigon and were extremely wealthy before the Viet Cong invaded so this might be a factor?

Bao Dai was one coward king. Throughout his life he did not do anything for his country, all he cared was about himself; so did Khai Dinh.

Interesting question.

The last wife of Emperor Bao Dai is a Chinese lady. They fled Vietnam to Hong Kong back in 1945 (?).

Uhm nope, Hue was a city that South Vietnam fought so hard from North Vietnam... After hue city was attacked, Communist literarily cut every captains and soilders of South Vietnam's head down.. South Vietnam was angry about it, and they attacked and got Hue back into the South Vietnam land. The Hue massacre was the number one propaganda that South Vietnam used to encourage the military.

Anyway, yes Hue accent is very very hard to recognized for south and north people. The dialect is just .... weird.. like the Wahng Ngai province, is pronounced Wong Ngua province. But girls with Hue accent are supposed to be the soothiest and prettiest accent. And they don't act weird, and the Hue foods are considered the Royal delacacies.

yea i think so but nam phuong hoang hau is not his last wife

Thanks for clearing that up.

Bao Dai had so many wives, French,Vietnamese, Chinese, who knows what

Nice pictures. i'll look for some later.

aren't all Asian kings like that ???

I know many Chinese emperors who had multiple wives. Some had up to hundreds. There are many stories that are based on this type of situation as well. Sometimes the first wife would be jealous because the emperor would pay more attention to another wife below her who just gave her a son. Sons are important to emperors because they are the ones who will take their place when they die.

Also, sometimes different countries would exchange princesses to be the wives of another country to improve relationship. Europeans also did this.

I remember in "Anna and the King" with Chow Yun Fat, that he said the Chinese emperor had 2000 wives.