Vietnam guide
A New Dawn for Indochina
The very name of Vietnam reverberates with the sounds of war, ancient and modern. This is the nation that defeated the Mongol hordes of Kublai Khan in the 13th century, and the French and the Americans in their turn in the 20th. But there's more to Vietnam than pockmarked paddies and war memorials. It's a land of ancient temples, rugged mountains, palm-lined beaches, verdant rice fields, and welcoming, smiling people.
Wedged between China, Laos, Cambodia and the sea, Vietnam is quite distinct from its neighbours in almost every way, from language to customs and costumes. Vietnam is bigger in area than New Mexico or Norway, but with a vastly greater population density.
Like Norway, Vietnam is exceptionally long and narrow, stretching nearly 1,700 km (1,000 miles) from north to south. But at its waist it's a mere 50 km (30 miles) wide.
From the China Sea to the Gulf of Thailand, Vietnam has more than 3,200 km (2,000 miles) of coastline, including all-but-undiscovered beaches. The country rises to peaks as tall as 3,143 m (more than 10,000 ft), but most Vietnamese live at or near sea level, and mostly along the great river systems, the Red River Delta in the north and the Mekong Delta in the south. Here canals and dykes attempt to control the floods and irrigate the endless, soggy fields of rice that thrive in the tropical climate. Rice is essential to the country's cultural and dietary needs. As in China, a bowl of boiled rice is the staff of life here, but thanks to the French, who colonized Indochina, the Vietnamese have a taste for good bread, too. Vietnamese cuisine is reminiscent of several Chinese traditions, enhanced with surprising, subtle herbs, spices and sauces.
The devastation of the Second Indochina War can still be seen here and there in junk piles of wrecked bomber parts, whopping bomb craters, and mutilated temples. A Communist bastion in a post-communist world, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has inaugurated bold economic reforms. It is taking its first timid steps towards a market economy by opening wide its frontier to tourists and businessmen. Visitors have a front-row seat for dramatic changes. Every day is exciting in the new Vietnam.
