Legend claims in the mid-15th century Heaven sent Emperor Ly Thai To a magical sword, which he used to drive the Chinese from Vietnam.
After the war a giant golden turtle grabbed the sword and disappeared into the depths of this lake to restore the sword to its divine owners, inspiring the name Ho Hoan Kiem (Lake of the Restored Sword).
The area is best Fridays to Sundays when nearby traffic is banned 7pm to midnight and a public-square, fun-fair vibe takes over.
Every morning at around 6am local residents practice t’ai chi on the shore. The ramshackle Thap Rua, on an islet near the southern end, is topped with a red star and is often used as an emblem of Hanoi.
Over 60 percent of Vietnam’s IT employees want to switch jobs in the next six months, mostly for higher incomes.
A report on survey results recently released by VietnamWorks says 47.5 percent of the Information Technology (IT) staff cited “wanting higher salary” as their reason for the switch.
“Wanting to be promoted” ranked as the second reason at 15.7 percent, while “wanting to a new work environment” came in third at 10 percent.
Most IT respondents said that they deserve a higher salary and expect increases of between $300 and $1,000.
Senior developers in Ho Chi Minh City, for example, receive an average salary of $1,098 a month, but they expect this figure to be $1,563.
The gap increases with higher positions. IT mangers in HCMC earn on average $1,550 a month, but they desire $2,625.
Although most respondents received bonuses and incentives, over 20 percent were not happy. According to 28.9 percent of unhappy respondents, the bonus amount was too low, and 25.1 percent said the types of bonuses given were insufficient.
Gaku Echizenya, CEO of Navigos Group, the parent company of VietnamWorks, said that the increasing demand for IT human resources in the digital age has led to challenges in attracting and keeping employees in Vietnam.
“We believe that the salary, bonus and incentives for employees need to be improved to meet their expectations.”
The survey polled 1,083 IT employees in 2018.
A report by IT recruiting firm TopDev released in January said that the Vietnamese IT sector faces a big shortage, as demand is set to go up from 320,000 engineers this year to 400,000 in 2020.
The shortfall is 75,000 this year, and set to increase to 100,000 in 2020, it added.
Vietnamese shares fell on Friday, ending a three-day rise, as investors continued seeking short-term profits on the last day of exchange-traded funds’ review.
The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.43 per cent to close at 1,004.12 points.
The southern market index had gained total 2.41 per cent in the previous three trading days and climbed above the milestone of 1,000 points.
For the whole week, the VN-Index gained total 1.91 per cent.
More than 250.2 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ6.5 trillion (US$279.5 million).
The figures were up 11.5 per cent in volume and 35 per cent in value from Thursday’s numbers as the two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – FTSE Vietnam ETF and VNM ETF – tried to finish their quarterly portfolio reviews in the last minutes of Friday session.
Two realty firms – Vinhomes (VHM) and Vingroup (VIC) – were down 0.7 per cent and 0.1 per cent as the two ETFs decided to unload an amount of the companies’ shares from their portfolios.
Retail firms, consumer staple companies, and seafood processing and agricultural businesses were among poorly-performing sectors on Friday.
Investors tried to offload those stocks following their recent increases.
Among those stocks, digital retailer Mobile World (MWG) dropped 0.4 per cent, totalling a two-day fall of 0.8 per cent.
In the food and beverage sector, dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) lost 0.1 per cent to total a three-day decline of 1.4 per cent.
Financials recorded slower growth rates. Bank and insurance stocks narrowed their gains while brokerage shares retreated from previous increases.
Vietcombank (VCB) dropped 1.5 per cent after having rallied total 6.9 per cent in the previous three days.
Other bank stocks that also stepped down included TPBank (TPB), Techcombank (TCB) and Sacombank (STB).
According to Thành Công Securities (TCSC), after a three-day rally investors were clearly cautious amid strong selling pressure that hit large-cap stocks, pulling stock indices down.
However, as the VN-Index fell slightly and was kept above 1,000 points, there was proof that the market sentiment was not too low and there was more room for further improvement, it said.
The VN-Index would encounter stronger selling in the next few days as large-cap stocks were hit and the index would fluctuate around the corner, TCSC added.
On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.39 per cent to end at 110.44 points.
The northern market index has gained total 2.05 per cent this week.
Workers who barely escaped Friday’s deadly wall collapse in southern Vietnam have yet to pull themselves together.
Pham Van Bo was standing just a few steps away when the 10 meter (33 feet) high, 30 meter wide wall at the construction site of a garment factory in Long Ho District, Vinh Long Province collapsed Friday morning.
He had to leave the wall, where he and others were plastering with cement, to check on the concrete mixer, which appeared to have a problem.
“I just walked away for a few steps when I heard cracks and felt vibration from the wall. I ran immediately and screamed at the same time. In the blink of an eye, it all fell down, just a few meters behind me,” he said.
Vo Phi Phat, a supervisor at the project in Hoa Phu Industrial Zone, was also standing a few meters away when the accident happened.
He heard a loud noise right before seeing the entire wall fall down, and then everything was covered in dust.
Then came the screams.
“I ran over to see people felled by concrete bars, lying motionless,” Phat said.
There were 10 workers working around the wall at the time, he said, still stunned.
They were divided into two groups, one standing on a scaffolding to plaster cement on the upper part of the wall, which was built more than two months ago, and the other taking charge of the lower part.
Of the group, six were killed, two are still in critical condition.
The father of Nguyen Thi Huynh Nhu, a beverage vendor in the industrial zone, was one of the survivors.
Nhu rushed into the site on learning that the wall had collapsed.
“Luckily, my father had escaped just in time. But I am unable to be calm, until now. ”
Le Phuoc Thien, deputy head of the Industrial Zone Authority in Vinh Long, said work started at the 4,000-square-meter factory in December last year.
“The authorities will now check if the entire project has been constructed in line with the design and the investor’s license or not,” he said.
Police in the border town of Mong Cai in Quang Ninh Province announced Thursday that they have arrested two local people for human trafficking.
Dang Van Hien, 29, and Tran Thi Duyen, 24, have been detained on the criminal charges of organising the illegal exit of people from Vietnam, police said.
According to a report from local police, at 12.20pm on March 13, border guards in Mong Cai checked a truck carrying a group of 23 people from seven northern provinces which was heading to China.
The group told the police that they had left home to follow Hien and Duyen because they were promised high salaries in China.
Each of them had to pay Duyen 1,200 to 1,300 yuan (USD179-194) to be brought to China.
Hien told the police that he was responsible for guiding and arranging transportation to bring the group to Bac Son Commune to cross the border to China.
If convicted, Duyen and Hien can be sentenced for up to seven and 10 years in prison, and be fined up to VND10,000,000 to 50,000,000 (USD432 – 2,160).
Vietnam one of the best places for retirees given its low living costs, according to MoneyWise.
Vietnam has been named among the world’s top 15 countries for retirees in 2019 by MoneyWise, a digital personal finance publication.
With healthcare and other costs skyrocketing in the US, the mere $16,848 retirees receive annually on average is scarcely enough for a decent life, particularly when they face out-of-pocket healthcare costs of more than $13,000 a year. MoneyWise provided the list for those retiring shortly and considering taking their retirement savings and moving overseas for their senior years, and was based on travel advisories and the latest information on living costs, visa requirements, and other factors.
Countries on the list in Central and South America, Europe, and Asia offer not only lower living costs and great climates but also modern amenities and advanced medical care that retirees with savings of $200,000 or less can easily get by on.
With its rich culture and history, gorgeous natural landscapes, and affordable living costs, Vietnam is a truly special retirement destination, according to MoneyWise.
Two people can live on about $1,500 a month in major cities and if you head to the beach towns of Nha Trang or Da Nang you can live happily on less than $1,000 per month. Nha Trang is home to plenty of expats and Western restaurants, while Da Nang is a modern city with a beach and a temperate climate. A one-bedroom apartment in either city rents for under $400 a month.
At those prices, you’ll have plenty of funds left over to explore Vietnam’s sunny coastline, Buddhist pagodas, and French colonial relics, and enjoy tasty street food and unique cuisine, blending French, Cambodian and Chinese flavors.
While Vietnam offers perfectly adequate healthcare, you might have to fly to Thailand or Singapore for a serious medical situation.
Although English is becoming more commonly spoken in Vietnam’s cities and tourist centers and the government has put more emphasis on English-language learning in schools, retirees are advised that some knowledge of Vietnamese is needed to communicate in smaller towns and rural areas.
If you’re not married to a citizen or have a family in Vietnam, you’ll need to apply for a visa to stay in the country long term. Vietnam doesn’t have a specialized retirement program. Instead, you can apply for a one-year multiple-entry visa, which requires you leave the country once every 90 days.
Others countries on the list include Panama, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, Chile, Thailand, and Ecuador.
Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC was Asia’s most viewed club on YouTube in February.
In a February report, website Deportes & Finanzas said Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC (HAGL) continued to be the most watched Asian club on YouTube. The club was also eighth in the world in terms of YouTube views.
HAGL had 5.59 million views in February, surpassing giant clubs like Tottenham Hotspurs, Arsenal and Bayern Munich. Although this number is less than in January when the club had 6.05 million views, it still retained the first spot in Asia.
Another Vietnamese club, V. League 1’s 2018 champion, Hanoi FC, had 4.3 million views, to take third position in Asia and 15th in the world.
On the top 20 list worldwide, Barcelona FC was the most watched club with 20.6 million views, followed by Manchester United, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
HAGL FC was the champions of V-League in 2003 and 2004. In V. League 1 2019, the club has just three points after three games, with two losses and one win. Earlier this year, they sent two of their key players on loan to foreign clubs: striker Nguyen Cong Phuong to South Korean’s Incheon United and midfielder Luong Xuan Truong to Thai club Buriram United.
Dozens of kindergarteners in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh have tested positive with pork tapeworm in less than a month as their parents blame dirty school meals for the mass infection of unprecedented scale.
The bizarre food safety scandal unraveled last month when cooks at Thanh Khuong Kindergarten in Bac Ninh discovered what appeared to be larvae in pork provided by the school’s food supplier on two separate occasions on February 14 and 20.
After learning of the news, parents of three students took their kids to the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi to test for worms on March 7.
Two of the three kindergarteners were found to be infected with pork tapeworms, according to a hospital official.
Their parents took to social media to warn others of the infectious disease, leading to a drove of over 300 students at Thanh Khuong Kindergarten being taken to Hanoi for blood and stool tests this week.
Over 170 of them were tested at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, while the remaining135 were tested at the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology.
It was the largest number of tapeworm tests the hospital had had to carry out in such a short period, said Nguyen Van Kinh, director of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, at a press conference on Friday.
As of Friday afternoon, 57 students had tested positive with pork tapeworm infection while 50 more are awaiting results, Kinh said.
It is not immediately clear whether the infected children had caught pork tapeworms from their school meals.
A delegation of officials and experts from the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology will be in Bac Ninh this Sunday to investigate the cause of the mass tapeworm infection.
Human infection of pork tapeworm relies on eating unaudited, undercooked pork or on ingesting faecally contaminated water or food, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Ingested tapeworm eggs develop to larvae in various organs of the human body and can cause neurological symptoms, including epileptic seizures, when they enter the central nervous system, WHO warns.
Pork tapeworm is the cause of 30 percent of epilepsy cases in many endemic areas where people and roaming pigs live in close proximity, according to the same source.
Samsung Vietnam (Samsung Vina) officially launched the Samsung Showcase, a technology exhibition and experience centre at the Bitexco building in Ho Chi Minh City on March 15.
This is the third centre of this kind of Samsung in the world, following those in New York (the US) and Frankfurt (Germany).
The centre, spreading across over 1,000sq.m., is divided into 18 areas, giving visitors a chance to discover the latest breakthrough technologies of the group in mobile devices, visual-audio equipment and home appliances, as well as experimental products not yet available on the market.
General Director of Samsung Vina Suh Kyung Wook said the experience space is hoped to become a symbol and a new technological destination in the city.
Samsung Vietnam has total investment of over 17.3 billion USD in Vietnam and employs 160,000 labourers. Its member companies in Vietnam include Samsung Electronics Vietnam Bac Ninh (SEV), Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT), Samsung Vietnam Mobile R&D Centre (SVMC), Samsung Vina Electronics (SAVINA), Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex (SEHC), Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV), Samsung SDI Vietnam (SDIV) and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vietnam (SEMV).
For once, an online viral craze is making a positive change to the world, instead of enticing kids to eat washing up liquid.
The so-called #trashtag challenge has gone viral in recent days and inspired people the world over to clean up rubbish in public areas, and Vietnam is no exception.
The challenge encourages people to clean up littered places and post before-and-after pictures on social media.
The #trashtag challenge began gaining popularity on March 5, after a Facebook user shared a before-and-after photo of a messy area that had been cleaned in an unknown location. The post grabbed attention with more than 330,000 shares on Facebook.
In the past week, thousands of people have posted photos and videos on social media, showing themselves cleaning up rubbish all over the world.
The trend has attracted Vietnamese youths, too.
Many have picked up the challenge, joining the trend to share their cleanup photos at beaches, parks, schools and streets in many areas of the country.
Le Tien Anh, a student from the National University of Civil Engineering and his friend decided to clean up an area of Dong Mo entertainment area in Hanoi’s suburban Son Tay District.
Anh had never previously attempted an internet challenge, but knew he had to get involved this time.
“We have been here for many times and seen that the area has been overrun with garbage. The more tourists come to the place, the more garbage is littered,” he told Việt Nam News.
Anh and his friend spent three hours cleaning the area. The before-and-after photo featuring 35 rubbish bags has been praised online.
“We are happy as we can do something constructive. We hope the challenge will keep spreading to attract more people to join in,” Anh said.
Le Thanh Trung, head of a volunteer club in Hanoi, received support from Facebook users after he shared his before-and-after photo on picking up rubbish at Ba Vi National Park in Hanoi’s Ba Vi District, challenging others to do good for society.
As many as 20 volunteers have cleaned up the area around the Old Church – a popular part of the tourism site.
However, as the head of the club with 26 teams of volunteers involved in clean-up work for 26 years, Trung knew that there was a lot of work to do.
“We have done the job for years. There’s a lot to do. Rubbish is everywhere, and people – most are tourists – still litter.
“The trend, with its meaningful and practical call to keep the environment clean, would help motivate people to start cleaning up trash and improve awareness of people about keeping the environment clean,” Trung said.
A Facebook user named Nguyen Le Thu wrote that the challenge was a useful trend for young people, standing out among the many silly and dangerous challenges online.
Another Facebook user named Ha Trang wrote that it was high time to do something to protect the planet. “This trend should become the habit of everybody. It should be done regularly,” she wrote.
Cao Manh Tuan, admin of the Facebook group, Những người thích đi du lịch (Travel lovers), is calling for people to join the challenge to pick up trash at Hon Goi in northern coastal Quang Ninh Province in next month.
He has even created the hashtag #donracdulich (cleaning tourism garbage) to attract more Vietnamese people to join in.
“The trend is an excuse for us to clean up at tourism sites,” he said. “Vietnam’s tourism sector is forecast to develop remarkably in the coming years. What we need to do is to keep the tourism sites clean, then the country will be clean and the Earth will be clean”.
The outage of several apps and services powered by tech giants Facebook and Google over the past few days brought tremendous problems to the work and daily life of Vietnamese users.
The outage affecting Facebook and its sister apps such as Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was first recorded on Wednesday and it was not until late Thursday when the apps appeared to return to normal.
Many Facebook users reported being unable to post new statuses or share content on their personal accounts during this period, whereas others reported not even being able to log into their accounts.
The problems were encountered in both web and mobile app versions of the social media platform.
Many claim that the issues had considerable impacts on both their daily and professional life. Internet retailers, in particular, seemed to have suffered the most serious consequences.
Thao Nguyen, the owner of a children’s clothing store in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, said she was unable to reply to customer questions submitted via the shop’s Facebook page.
“The problem persisted for an entire day and I ended up receiving a lot of complaints from buyers,” Nguyen continued, adding that the credibility and revenue of her store were severely affected.
Hoang Hai, a media professional, said that the company was unable to live-stream an important event on its Facebook page, which affected its operations.
According to Huynh Thanh Phi, director of Ho Chi Minh City-based Leo Brothers Marketing Company, the Facebook downtime resulted in serious damage to advertisers who depend on the platform’s services.
Facebook announced via Twitter on Thursday night (Vietnam time) that “a server configuration change” was to blame for the massive outage.
“We’ve now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering,” the tweet reads.
This is not the first time the major social media site has been hit with an outage, but it might have been the longest. Facebook has also confirmed the issue is not related to a DDoS attack.
In the meantime, users of many Google services including Gmail, Drive, and Maps, also faced multiple inconveniences on Wednesday morning.
In Vietnam, people could not send emails with attached files, which posed huge challenges to companies throughout the country.
“My job is to deal with emails from my company’s clients on a daily basis, which greatly depends on Gmail,” said Nhat Thien, who works for an export firm in District 4.
Google said on Thursday all of its problems had been fixed and services have returned to normal.
Quang Ninh Province has completed a feasibility report for an undersea tunnel to connect the eastern and western parts of Ha Long town.
Vietnam’s first undersea tunnel will cost almost VND9.8 trillion ($423.46. million), according to the government website. Province Chairman Nguyen Van Doc said at a meeting Thursday that the government had sought a feasibility report.
Construction of the 2.75-kilometer (1.7-mile) Cua Luc Tunnel is scheduled to start this year and finished in 2024. It will share the increasing traffic load with Bai Chay Bridge, now the only way across the strait that splits the town.
To run from the Vuon Dao intersection to the Vinhomes Ben Doan urban area, it will be 4.75 meters (15.6 feet) high and the six-lane road inside will be built of reinforced concrete to withstand a magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
Provincial authorities have said in the past that a tunnel is needed to ensure safety and uninterrupted flow of economic and tourism activities even during heavy storms.
Quang Ninh, home to the UNESCO heritage site Ha Long Bay, received 12.2 million domestic and international tourists last year, up 24 percent from 2017, according to its tourism department.
Revenues from tourism were up 28 percent at VND24 trillion ($1.03 billion).
Dozens of false ebony trees have been destroyed in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Forest only a kilometre away from Con Roang border guard station.
In the report sent to Quang Binh Province People’s Committee on March 4, Phong Nha-Ke Bang Management Board stated that 66 trees had been cut down, including 44 false ebony trees, and the loggers had taken about 70 cubic metres of timber.
The marks at the site showed that the loggers might have been started destroying the forest since last November.
The destroyed area is in the inner part of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and only a kilometre away from the Con Roang border guard station. A tent was also found two kilometres away with a cubic metre of timber. It was later found out that the tent was rented by a local in Bo Trach District.
Many people have raised questions about the close proximity of the destroyed area to the guard station and why no one noticed the activities. “The population density in the border area is low so strangers would be noticed right away. It’s absurd that no one noticed anything when dozens of loggers from other provinces came and felled trees near the guard station,” a local said.
The Phong Nha-Ke Bang Management Board said they would take responsibility as the forest’s manager but Con Roang border guards should be blamed too. According to the managers, they focused on other parts of the forest, thinking that loggers wouldn’t dare work near the border guard station. Moreover, whenever they wanted to tour the border area, they had to ask for permission first which diminished their ability to carry out spot checks.
In order to bring the timber to towns, the loggers would use the Quyet Thang road which has four guard stations located along it. All vehicles are expected to be checked except the red-plated military vehicles from the border guard station.
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board are working with related agencies to investigate the case.
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City continue to be ranked well below regional peers on the global quality of living index.
Vietnam’s capital city has made no progress from last year’s ranking of 155 in the 2019 Quality of Living Index compiled by Mercer, the New York-based consultancy.
Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s biggest city and commercial hub, has not fared much better, moving up one place to 152nd in the global index that measures 231 global cities in political, social and economic environments against medical and health considerations.
The ranking also factors schools, public services and transportation, recreation, consumer goods and housing.
The two major Vietnamese cities lagged well behind other Asian cities like Tokyo (49th), Seoul (77th), Taipei (84th), Beijing (120th), Bangkok (133rd), Manila (137th) and Jakarta (142nd).
Both Hanoi and HCMC have experienced rapidly declining air quality over the past year, marking them among the polluted cities in Southeast Asia.
The air pollution has been blamed on construction projects, expanding fleets of cars and motorcycles and heavy industry, including steel works, cement factories and coal fired plants surrounding the capital city.
Singapore remains the most livable city in Asia, 25th in Mercer’s most recent rankings.
With a population of 1.8 million, Vienna topped the list for the tenth year in a row, boasting a vibrant cultural scene, comprehensive healthcare and moderate housing costs.
Vienna is followed by Switzerland’s Zurich; and then New Zealand’s Auckland and Germany’s Munich in joint third position.
Baghdad has been at the bottom of the list for a decade now. Waves of sectarian violence have swept through the city since the American-led invasion in 2003.
Yemen’s capital Sanaa, devastated by conflict, ranked two places above Baghdad, and Syria’s Damascus, seven years into a civil war, ranked six places above the Iraqi capital.
Hanoi is considering a motorbike ban on Le Van Luong and Nguyen Trai streets, where it is mayhem especially during rush hour.
Every morning between 7 and 8:30 a.m. vehicles line up for kilometers on Nguyen Trai Street, one of the roads on which Hanoi is considering trialing motorbike restrictions. The same story repeats in the evening when people head for home from work.
Vu Van Vien, director of the city Department of Transport, said Nguyen Trai and Le Van Luong streets, through which the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line and a bus rapid transit (BRT) route run, have been selected for the motorbike restriction trial. They run parallel to each other in Thanh Xuan District on the outskirts, around seven kilometers west of Hanoi’s center.
The traffic jam on the two streets is especially bad at intersections with lights. Vien said the department would not rush ahead with the pilot plan but carefully study it to ensure it is fully feasible and practicable.
The city would also gather public opinion during the pilot period, he said Monday.
Vehicles move at a snail’s pace under a section of the long-delayed Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro, which is finally slated to begin commercial operations next month.
Nguyen Trai Street has four to six lanes in either direction but since the lanes are not marked, utter chaos reigns there.
Le Van Luong used to have three lanes, but since last year one has been taken over by the BRT, and traffic jams are a common sight here.
Nguyen Thi Tuyen, who goes to work by motorbike through Le Van Luong Street every day, said she would have to catch three different buses to travel 10 kilometers (six miles) to her office if the ban comes in force, “which is really inconvenient.”
During rush hour, motorbikes and cars encroach on the BRT lane.
