Wonders of the bay By Features Desk
Publisher:Viet Nam News - Publication Date: 27-02-2008

Leaders of the northern province of Quang Ninh are taking steps to host a week-long tourism festival, named Ha Long – Natural Wonder of the World, beginning April 25.
The annual event, which began in 2003, honours the beauty of Ha Long Bay and its surroundings.
This year the festival will promote the bay as a serious contender in the New Natural Wonders of the World competition.
Local and international art troupes from China, South Korea, Thailand and Laos are expected to perform during the festival, which is scheduled to attract 15,000 tourists a day.
The event will be staged at the Bai Chay Ferry, Bai Chay Bridge and Cua Luc Bay and other nearby areas.
The festival will also feature lion dances, photography and painting exhibition on Ha Long Bay, carnival festival on the water, beauty contest and fireworks.
Nhu Thi Hong Lien, vice chairman of Quang Ninh Province People’s Committee, said the festival would be free to everyone.
Last year the province received 3.8 million tourists, 1.4 million of them foreigners.
Trinh Van Hong, deputy chairman of Quang Ninh tourism department, said more high quality hotels will be opened for the event and more boats will be available for cruising.
Currently, Quang Ninh has 800 three- and four-star hotels with 6,000 rooms.
Around 300 boats will be in service during the peak days of the festival, Hong said.
At the festival, visitors can submit votes in the online Natural Wonders contest for Ha Long Bay through a wireless connection to the internet on boats and luxury hotels, said head of Ha Long Bay management board Ngo Hung.
Along with the festival, a Ha Long international trading fair will open on the same day, exhibiting 400 booths, 150 of them foreign-owned.
It will showcase seafood products, wine and handicrafts.
Vietnamese handicraft villages will display and sell their products, including Bat Trang ceramics, Ha Dong silk, ruou can (a liquor made by an ethnic minority group from Hoa Binh province) and tea from Thai Nguyen province.

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