Da Nang has a coastline of 30 kilometres long, famous for many beautiful seashores stretching from the north to the south such as My Khe, Nam O, Xuan Thieu, Thanh Binh, Tien Sa, Son Tra, Bac My An, Non Nuoc. They are calm seas with green water during four seasons, not being polluted with 60% salination and high safety. With 900 meters in length, My Khe Beach is the most crowded of Da Nang beaches and popular to local people.

My Khe Beach is located about 6km east of Da Nang and about 24km north of Hoi An. It is a nine-kilometre stretch of smooth sand with an average width between 50m and 70m. The gradient is gentle, and its sheltered position in the lee of the Son Tra peninsula softens the autumn winds that restrict swimming further down the coast.

It is an ideal and huge beach with smooth sand and a slight slope. Behind the beach is a dark green poplar forest, and beside, the Kinh River carries crystal water to the sea. The beach has coral, abundant plants and creatures along bankside and under sea. Especially, the beach is next to the city centre, in roads easy to come and by various means of transport. Sea water in My Khe is cool with little wave so you can bath all year’s round, especialy in summer from May to August. The lack of large waves, less than average pollution, and an annual mean temperature around 25^oC, makes it a safe place to swim for adults and children alike.

The beach has hotels, pleasure-houses and various abundant services, creating favourable conditions for tourists to relax on the seashores. There are 50 well-equipped and comfortable bedrooms and lots of services in My Khe hotel. Many luxurious seaside villas with over 100 rooms are available for families. You can come here to play and rest at weekend. Around the hotel area, there is plenty of seafood restaurants and stalls, and large numbers of local vendors traverse the beach selling all kinds of foods and drinks. Coastal specialties like shrimps, crabs, fish, cuttles, etc. in hundreds of small shops are at reasonable price. They can be irritating sometimes – if they are too persistent, you should ignore the nuisance since that is the best strategy.

American soldiers occupied a part of the beach before 1975. They established some premises for their relaxation and recreations. With some enabling conditions such as being near the city’s center, large space, beautiful landscapes, and qualified services (hotels, restaurants, vehicles keeping site, fresh water bathing, sunshade and buoy lease), My Khe Beach is now convenient for developing kinds of services such as fishing, water-skiing, diving, yatch race and so on.

Moreover, the safeguard team of Da Nang seashore work from 5 a.m to 8 p.m every day to guarantee safety for visitors to bath and relax on the beach. There has been a steady increase in the number of tourists visiting the beach.

Han River suspension bridge was completed, it links the east to the west area, making transportation possible. As a result, My Khe Beach becomes an attractive resort, a really very good beach!

source from: vietnam-beauty

The entrance to the Champa Museum in Da Nang.

Built in 1915 it houses nearly 2,000 sculptures made by the Indian-influenced Cham civilisation that flourished in Viet Nam between the 6th and 18th centuries, with 475 on display inside and in the garden and the rest in its vaults.

There are some terracotta and bronze sculptures but most are made of sandstone and cover a gamut of styles. They mostly date back to the 12th to 15th centuries.

The artefacts were found in the central region between Quang Binh and Binh Thuan provinces. They are displayed in 10 halls named after the localities where they were discovered – like My Son, Tra Kieu, and Dong Duong.

History

According to its director, Vo Van Thang, the Champa Museum’s first building was opened only in 1919 but many Cham artefacts had been collected and brought to the site over the preceding 20 years.

The collection was begun by French archaeologists and experts from the L’ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient (the Far East Archaeological Research Institute) in Ha Noi.

Thang said the establishment of a Cham sculpture museum in Da Nang was first proposed in 1902 by the EFEO’s Department of Archaeology. Henri Parmentier, a prominent archaeologist in the department, made a great contribution to the campaign for its construction.

The first building was designed by French architects. The museum has been expanded twice since then, but the character of the original architecture has been preserved.

The museum is being managed by the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Thang said the museum has sent its exhibits to a number of exhibitions abroad. In 2003 it sent two artefacts to an art and history museum in Brussels, Belgium, and the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, Austria.

In October 2005 it lent 48 objects to an exhibition titled Viet Nam Art Treasure: Champa Sculpture at the Guimet Museum in Paris.

Recently in the US, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Asia Society, New York, held an unprecedented exhibition of art from ancient Viet Nam called Ancient Vietnam: From River Plain to Open Sea, introducing new scholarship on the history of Vietnamese art.

The exhibition was held from September 2009 to January 3 this year at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Around 110 objects from the first millennium BC through the 17th century, on loan from leading Vietnamese museums, including the Champa Museum, were on display at this exhibition.

“These exhibitions helped make ancient Viet Nam’s arts better known around the world,” Thang said.

However, the global economic turmoil has resulted in a decrease in the number of visitors to the museum.

Thang said the figure dropped from 190,000 in 2008 to 150,000 last year, with around 110,000 of them being foreigners.

“Very interesting and educational – most instructive,” said Shyllist Roy, a British tourist who came to the museum early last year.

Anggoon Saiboot, a Thai visitor, said: “I’ve come from Thailand to visit the museum. I think I am very lucky and happy.”

After visiting the museum in February 2008, Singapore’s President S. R. Nathan wrote in the visitors’ book: “A rare display of ancient Hindu statues – well displayed for visitors to admire and appreciate a bygone civilisation in Viet Nam.”

The entrance fee to the museum on September 2 Street is VND30,000 for an adult and VND5,000 for a child. High-school students can enter for free.

A direct flight from the central city of Da Nang to Japan will begin operating soon.

The central city’s People Committee and Vietnam Airlines have signed a memorandum of understanding to deploy a flight route connecting Japan’s Osaka, Viet Nam’s Da Nang and Cambodia’s Siem Riep.

Alternatives routes, connecting Da Nang with Tokyo, Fukuoka or Nagoia, were considered but they are less profitable.

Since the coastal provinces of Viet Nam have always been the most popular choice among the Japanese, a direct flight route connecting Da Nang with Japan will increase both foreign investment and tourism.

Japan has rolled out a tourism campaign titled Visit the World Campaign, which places Viet Nam as one of its top priorities.

According to Fuji Hideo, the Japan Association of Travel Agents’ vice chairman, about 16-17 million Japanese travel every year and the number is predicted to climb to 20 million in 2010.

A committee has been set up to promote the tourism industry in the Mekong Delta, including Viet Nam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar.

Vietnam Airlines said an increasing number of Japanese tourists were finding Viet Nam an interesting destination.

“Japan now has the largest tourism market in Viet Nam, which is growing very fast. There were only 113,514 Japanese tourists in 1999, and this number was 411,000 in 2007,” said Pham Ngoc Minh, Vietnam Airlines’ general director.

“We will quote the same prices for flights departing for Da Nang and those for Ha Noi and HCM City. Furthermore, Vietnam Airlines will actively launch campaigns to prepare the market for this new route,” he added.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News