History & Geography

To many, Vietnam is most often known for the recent war and fight for democracy. In fact, its history is dated back to more than two thousand years and is filled with traditions, fortitude and adaptation. With years of constant battling for independence, Vietnam has gone through many episodes of war and peace, destruction and restoration. The shape of the present Vietnam map is an interesting one. With little imagination, it can be seen as a dragon with its head in the North and its feet in the South. Two deltas surrounding the Red River (in the North) and the Mekong River (in the South) have provided abundance of rice and food for the Vietnamese. By the way, Mekong means Nine Dragons in Vietnamese.

The climate in Vietnam varies from North to South and from coastline to mountainous areas. Recently, Vietnam has become a popular tourist attraction in the Orient with Ha Long Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin, white-sand beaches along the Vietnam coastline, and many other attractions. Preserved historic sites such as One-Pillar Pagoda, built in 1049, Imperial Academy, first Vietnamese university built in 1076, can surely reveal the faces of Vietnam in the by-gone days.

The above shows an animation collage images of Vietnamese geographical related elements. Fade in image of a map of vietnam, followed by the fade in image of a temp, and a path to an ancient ruin, the garden view of the Temple of Literature, A statue for worshipping, a waterfall, and an image of a person walking in a desert

(You must have Adobe Flash Player installed to view the animation. Visit http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ to install this player)