Ten outstanding tourism and cultural events of 2011

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on December 27, announced the top ten tourism and culture events of the year.
The seven cultural events include: the UNESCO recognized the Ho Citadel as the world cultural heritage, recognized hat xoan (Xoan singing) as the world intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection, the first show of Vietnam’s ethnic costumes, the 100th anniversary of the Hanoi Opera House, the first international tea festival, Ha Long Bay is voted as one of the seven new world natural wonders, the tourism sector welcomes the six millionth foreign visitor.
The sports sector contributes three events: Vietnam won 288 medals, ranking third at the Southeast Asian Games 2011, Phan Thi Ha Thanh won the first world bronze medal for Vietnam at the World Gymnastics Championships in Japan and received a ticket to the Olympics 2012, swimmer Hoang Quy Phuoc took two gold medals at SEA Games and broke the Southeast Asian record for men’s 100m butterfly.
To Van Dong, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that the list of ten top events were consulted by experts and journalists, with 70-90 percent approval.