Vietnam Insider

The city of Dalat has issued a warning to tourists about scams involving fake websites pretending to be hotels and guesthouses in Dalat, targeting those booking accommodations for the Dalat Flower Festival.

On November 19, Mr. Dang Quang Tu, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Dalat City (Lam Dong Province), including the Dalat Police Department, along with the Department of Culture and Information and other relevant agencies, to investigate reports of hundreds of tourists being scammed while booking accommodations for the festival.

Da Lat City has over 2,500 accommodation establishments with 33,138 rooms licensed to operate tourism businesses.

The city has also requested that local wards and communes raise awareness and provide information to businesses and tourism accommodation providers to prevent such fraudulent activities.

In the lead-up to the 10th Dalat Flower Festival, set to open on the evening of December 5, 2024, scammers have been creating fake social media accounts mimicking local hotels and guesthouses. They advertise discounted rooms to lure tourists, offering enticing deals and requesting a 50% deposit to secure the booking, which they then pocket.

Mr. Le Anh Kiet, Head of the Culture and Information Department of Dalat City, stated that the city currently has over 2,500 licensed lodging facilities, offering a total of 33,138 rooms that meet tourism business standards.

Mr. Kiet advises tourists to avoid booking accommodations through unclear social media accounts or platforms where the bank account name differs from the profile name. During festivals and holidays, when demand for rooms is high, tourists are encouraged to contact hotels directly or call the Department of Culture and Information to verify information before making transactions. If suspect tourists have been scammed, they can report the incident to the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Lam Dong Province for timely resolution.

Common characteristics of fraudulent websites include offering room prices 30–50% lower than the market rate, along with additional perks and convenient locations. Scammers typically join travel-related Facebook groups and fan pages, actively seeking potential victims, engaging them with enthusiastic communication, and sharing numerous photos to build trust.

Tourists have fun at Xuan Huong Lake, Da Lat City

Additionally, homestays and private home rentals are popular among tourists, but some facilities operate without proper licenses or meeting security, fire safety, and government-approved standards for tourism accommodations.

Mr. Kiet also highlights instances where lodging facilities falsely advertise their services. Guests book one location but are redirected to another upon arrival, which does not match the online advertisements, negatively impacting Dalat’s tourism reputation.

According to the Lam Dong Department of Information and Communications, with the Dalat Flower Festival approaching, scammers are exploiting tourists’ fear of unavailable rooms to pressure them into early payments. These fraudulent activities are carried out quickly, leaving minimal traces, with servers often located abroad.

As previously reported by Thanh Nien, in response to the rise in online scams, the Lam Dong Department of Information and Communications has established a Fake News and Malicious Information Processing Center. It has also created a Zalo channel called “Lam Dong Anti-Fake News” and a hotline at 0912.010.801 for reporting false or misleading information to the authorities for action.

@Thanhnien.vn

“There’s nothing quite as impressive as witnessing the water lily harvest in Vietnam,” remarked Jess McHugh, a writer for The New York Times.

In the Mekong Delta, water lilies attract numerous visitors each autumn who come to learn about this unique tradition.

“The sight of farmers in Vietnam’s Mekong region harvesting water lilies has become a favored subject for photographers,” The New York Times wrote on November 14. Additionally, the flowers have become a centerpiece in various Mekong Delta tourism packages.

The American daily describes how local farmers, mostly women, in Vietnam’s southernmost region wade into shallow waters at dawn to harvest water lilies during a specific period, typically lasting a few weeks from August to November.

Locals in Tan Lap commune, An Giang, reenact the scene of washing water lilies. Photo: George Steinmetz.

“Water lilies are somewhat similar to lotuses but smaller in size, with sharper leaves. Their colors are more vibrant, featuring shades of purple and deep pink. Over the years, the sight of early risers gathering water lilies, bundling them, rinsing off mud directly in the river, and loading them onto small boats has garnered significant appreciation, particularly in the photography community,” the newspaper added.

Water lilies are grown year-round but bloom most vividly in the fall. Their stems are typically 2.3 cm in diameter, can grow up to 1 meter tall, and thrive easily in aquatic environments such as rivers, swamps, and ponds. Wild water lilies are often white and bloom for only a few hours daily over 3–5 days before wilting.

This plant has around 85 species, including Nymphaea nouchali, which blooms during the day, and Nymphaea rubra, which blooms at night. These two species are most commonly found in Africa and Asia.

When the river delta floods, the water lily harvest becomes a popular photo spot for tourists. Photo: George Steinmetz.

According to The New York Times, water lilies may be the oldest flowering plants on Earth, as blue water lilies were found buried with the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun (circa 1341 BCE). Today, this flower, symbolizing immortality, is also used as food and medicine.

Marc Hachadourian, the senior curator of the greenhouse at the New York Botanical Garden, describes the scent of water lilies as similar to Juicy Fruit gum.

Beyond photography and tourism, water lilies are integral to the daily lives of people in the Mekong region. They are used to decorate homes, decorate flower pots, and even as ingredients in local cuisine.

Thao Phan, the owner of a plant shop in Ho Chi Minh City, shared that water lilies symbolize resilience.

“After the flower blooms, you might think the plant is dead, but it will come back to life. Once you plant it, you’ll have it forever,” she told The New York Times.

@Znews

CNN has ranked pho in its list of the 20 best soups globally, hailing it as a famous Vietnamese dish worldwide.

Regarding pho, CNN wrote in the list: “The broth is simmered for hours with cinnamon, star anise, and other warming spices, creating an exquisite aroma. Pho is one of Vietnam’s most globally recognized dishes, but it is, at its core, a relatively new creation.

Pho is a dish that international tourists cannot miss when coming to Vietnam.

While modern pho restaurants now offer various flavors, beef pho remains the original. By the 1930s, pho was served with slices of raw beef, gently cooked in the hot broth (bo tai). beloved version in Vietnam, with options ranging from pure raw beef to combinations of raw and cooked beef, brisket, and tendon.”

Janet Clarkson, author of Soup: A Global History, notes that soup is one of the oldest and most universal dishes in the world.

“Every culture has some kind of soup. It has very ancient origins,” she writes in her book, adding that humans have been cooking soup since the Bronze Age using metal pots.

Boiling food allows people to sustain themselves with grains, enriched with herbs and other ingredients added for medicinal purposes.

“I think in every country in the world, historically, some soups have been considered restorative,” she emphasized.

This holds true regardless of what it is called. Today, soups are typically lighter in broth, while stews are richer, but both fall under the broad category of soups.

With this definition, CNN selected the 20 best soups in the world, including pho: Banga (Nigeria), borscht (Ukraine), bouillabaisse (France), caldo verde (Portugal), chorba frik (Algeria, Libya and Tunisia), chupe de camarones (Peru), gazpacho (Spain), groundnut soup (West Africa), gumbo (USA), harira (Morocco), kharcho (Georgia), Lanzhou beef noodle soup (China), mohinga (Myanmar), menudo (Mexico), moqueca de camarao (Brazil), soto ayam (Indonesia), tom yum goong (Thailand), tonkotsu ramen (Japan), yayla corbasi (Türkiye).

@Thanhnien.vn

The exiled experiential tourism project at Jingbohu Scenic Area (Heilongjiang, China) is causing controversy on social networks.

Daring Exile Tour Ideas

According to Sina , in mid-October, the official Weibo account of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Heilongjiang Province, China posted a video, inviting netizens to discuss the “Project“Exile tour in Ninh Co Thap” of Kinh Bac Ho scenic area.

The video reveals some of the project’s content, such as designing a tourist route along the ancient exile route, allowing visitors to experience wearing shackles. Solo travelers can experience single shackles, while couples or groups of friends can experience double shackles.

The tourist area will build an ancient-style Ninh Co Tower, accompanied by fun activities on ice and snow.

The idea of ​​this tour is to combine sightseeing with a form of “situational acting and audience interaction” based on the situations in the TV series Empresses in the Palace to give visitors an immersive experience. The souvenirs are also quite unique, with pink shackles, leg chains and clothes printed with the word “Prison”.

On October 15, Kinh Bac Ho Tourism Group also posted a short video promoting this project.

On October 31, Sina contacted the management board of Kinh Bac Ho tourist area to learn about the progress of the project. The operator said that they have not received any notice about the implementation. Everything is just at the planning stage, there is no specific announcement about the method and time of implementation. The tourist area has not yet started to build any related facilities.

“We have not received any notification at this time, so we cannot provide further information,” the employee said.

Ninh Co Thap in history

Ninggu Pagoda is not a tower, but the old name of the city of Ning’an (Heilongjiang). During the Qing Dynasty, Ninggu Pagoda was a place of exile for criminals, a harsh land. Ninggu Pagoda became widely known thanks to the movie Empresses in the Palace starring Sun Li, in which the emperor exiled Zhen Huan’s father and his family to Ninggu Pagoda. This scene became a major turning point in the relationship between the two.

In history, being exiled to Ninggu Tower was not fun at all, but could actually be life-threatening. Many famous people were exiled here, including Zheng Chenggong’s father Zheng Zhilong, the family of the great writer Jin Shengtan, the family of the thinker Lu Liuliang, the family of Fang Gongqian and Fang Xiaoxiao (Anhui), the father and son Yang Yue and Yang Xin (Zhejiang), the famous poet Wu Zhaoqian, the Buddhist scholar Han Ke, the writer Zhang Jinyan, etc.

A photo captures the moment depicting prisoners being exiled to Ninggu Tower during the Qing Dynasty – Photo: Weibo

Among those exiled to Ninh Co Thap, Ngo Trieu Khien was the one who lived in this land for 22 years. Through Ngo Trieu Khien’s poems, later generations learned about the real life of those exiled in Ninh Co Thap.

In the 18th year of Shunzhi (1661), in a letter to his parents, Wu Zhaoqian wrote: “Ninggu is the coldest and most miserable place in the world. From early spring to mid-April, the wind is as strong as thunder, and even the smallest details cannot be seen. From May to July, it rains continuously. By mid-August, there is heavy snow. In early September, the river freezes. The snow freezes as soon as it falls to the ground. Looking a thousand miles away, all you can see is white snow.”

The most terrifying thing about being exiled to Ninggu Pagoda was the arduous journey. According to the monograph History of the Northeast Exiles , the number of people exiled to the Northeast during the Qing Dynasty was over 1.5 million. Due to the remote location of Ninggu Pagoda, those exiled halfway through were eaten by tigers and wolves, and taken away by apes…

After arriving at Ning Gu Tower, life became easier. Among the exiles from the Central Plains, many were literati and officials, gradually forming a culture of exile in the Northeast.

During the Qing Dynasty, many literati and scholars were exiled to Ningguta for literary crimes. Among them, there were countless wrongful convictions, and many of the exiles were victims of political infighting and were harmed by enemies. Countless people died on the way to Ningguta. The history of exile to Ningguta and the Northeast is not a story with a happy or interesting ending.

Controversial exile tour project

Although the project has not been officially launched, it has attracted widespread attention and debate online. On the discussion forum of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, some netizens expressed their interest: “In the past, prisoners who were exiled to Ninggu Tower probably never dreamed that today there would be people spending money to experience this.” They also expressed their desire to experience it, saying that this idea is very novel and attractive.

However, the project has also received much criticism, saying that turning the historical pain of Ninh Co Thap into entertainment is too superficial. The implementation of this project is not beneficial to helping tourists understand history but goes against the original purpose of cultural tourism.

In response to criticism, many netizens objected: “It’s just a tourism project, is there a need to make such a big deal out of it?”, “If you find it inappropriate, don’t go, why make a fuss?”.

In recent years, immersive tourism has become very popular in China. Combining popular TV dramas and entertainment programs with local culture to create tourism projects has become more popular. For example, on the occasion of China’s National Day this year, Jiangsu Botanical Garden combined with the TV series Lianhualou  to create a jianghu-style immersive tourism project, which received much praise from fans of the series.

However, there are also many immersive tourism projects that have been criticized as offensive. For example, a tourist area in Ha Nam allowed visitors to experience pretending to be Japanese soldiers, which was considered to have crossed the line.

Heilongjiang has rich tourism resources, including snowy mountains, forests and many majestic and beautiful sceneries.

Many experts believe that if Kinh Bac Ho Tourism Group wants to exploit this exile tour , instead of turning the suffering of the ancients into a trick to attract customers, it should deeply exploit the exile culture, arousing the true cultural and historical values ​​of Ninh Co Thap – the political and military center of the northeastern border during the Qing Dynasty.

Currently, the Ninh Co Thap exile tour project has not been officially implemented yet, the final result still has to wait for the managers to consider.

Source: tuoitre.vn (Little moon)

Surveillance cameras combined with artificial intelligence (AI) allow for quick identification of problems such as accidents, traffic jams, etc., thereby helping to coordinate traffic effectively.

The draft Law on Special Consumption Tax proposes two options to keep the current tax rate on cigarettes at 75% but add an absolute tax that will gradually increase over the years to VND10,000 per pack by 2030.

Nearly 200 domestic and foreign units and enterprises from 27 countries such as the US, Russia, UK, France… registered to exhibit at the Vietnam International Defense Exhibition 2024.

Meteorological experts have given their comments on the weather patterns in the coming time in the Northern region.

Every year, this place attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists to visit and experience. The beautiful scenery of the “undersea forest” makes anyone admire.

”The Forest Under the Sea”

Binh Thuan is considered one of the most famous beach tourist destinations in Vietnam. With its geographical location and mild weather all year round, every year, this place welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists to explore. Besides famous places such as Phan Thiet, Mui Ne, Mui Ke,… Binh Thuan also has an extremely beautiful district. That is Phu Quy island. 

Phu Quy Island (also known as Thu Islet, Khoai Xu Islet) is a small island located about 120km southeast of Phan Thiet, Binh Thuan. The island’s scale also includes Hon Da Cao, Hon Do, Hon Tranh and Hon Hai surrounding it. Although the area of ​​this island district is less than 20km2, it possesses abundant resources and many beautiful landscapes. Phu Quy Island was also voted by CNN as one of the 5 most beautiful beaches in the East Sea.

In recent years, Phu Quy Island has caught the attention of travel enthusiasts. In addition to the clear blue beaches, the experience of watching corals on Phu Quy Island is attracting the attention of domestic and foreign tourists. This form of tourism not only stimulates the curiosity of tourists, but also attracts tourists by its uniqueness and difference. To describe the beauty of the coral reefs on this island district, many locals and tourists often compare it to a ”forest under the sea”. 

Under the cool blue water, Phu Quy Island “treats” tourists to a “paradise” of colorful corals. The coral reefs are interwoven with many diverse shapes. They are usually located 2 – 5m below the water surface. Therefore, visitors can completely admire the corals right when standing on the shore. 

Because tourism has not been exploited much, the ecosystem on Phu Quy Island still retains its pristine, wild features, extremely suitable for those who love adventure and discovery. 

When coming to see the corals on Phu Quy Island, visitors can choose scuba diving or SUP services. Of which, scuba diving services are newly developed here. Visitors will be provided with snorkels and fins to facilitate the observation of the underwater “wonders”. The cost for a scuba diving session on Phu Quy Island is about 300,000 – 500,000 VND/person. 

If you choose to paddle SUP or kayak, you can rent a boat near the beaches on Phu Quy Island. The price for one paddle is around 250,000 – 500,000 VND/person (depending on the service). To be able to admire the entire ecosystem of this island district, visitors can also see corals at Hon Tranh, Hon Trung, Hon Den…

In addition to coral viewing and swimming, Phu Quy Island also has many attractive tourist destinations such as Ganh Hang, Bai Nho, Phu Quy Lighthouse, Linh Son Pagoda… Each location has its own beauty, promising to bring visitors unforgettable experiences. 

What is the best season to go to Phu Quy?

Binh Thuan province is located in the tropical monsoon region near the equator, with lots of sunshine and wind. This land always has a fresh and cool climate all year round. Therefore, the most suitable time to explore Phu Quy island as well as other tourist destinations in Binh Thuan is from December to June of the following year. Tourists should consider visiting the islands from September to November, because this is the rainy and stormy season with rough seas. 

Phu Quy is the farthest island district of Binh Thuan province. The distance from the mainland to the island is about 110km, from 2 to 4 hours by boat. The ticket price for one way is 350,000 VND/person. 

When arriving at the island, visitors can choose taxis, motorbike taxis or rent motorbikes on the island to move around the island. The roads on Phu Quoc Island are relatively spacious and flat, very convenient for traveling between tourist attractions.