Young travellers flock to Dien Bien

Many topics encouraging youngsters to visit the historical site of the Dien Bien Phu victory 55 years ago have appeared on online forums. The number of travellers visiting Dien Bien is suddenly soaring in May.
These topics attract many members and they are updated with the latest photos of Dien Bien.
Minh Thuy and her friends, students from several universities in Hanoi, will take a tour of Dien Bien on May 7, the day of Dien Bien Phu victory. The group will also go to Lai Chau.
“The northwestern region has many cultural events and festivals. The landscapes there are very nice. This is a chance for us to review war remnants of the Dien Bien Phu Victory,” Minh Thuy said.
Five years ago, Huong Lien and her father, a Dien Bien veteran, paid a visit to Dien Bien. This year, the whole family will return to the site.
“My father called his comrades in Dien Bien one week before the trip. He is very happy and very excited because he will meet his friends again in Dien Bien. For myself, I’m impressed by the wild beauty and the cultural identity of Dien Bien,” Lien said.
According to Duong Mai Lan, representative of Vietravel Hanoi, the tour to Dien Bien is normally not very popular but the number of visitors going to this site has suddenly increased on the occasion of the Dien Bien Phu Victory celebration.
Besides veterans who want to return to the old battlefield, many young people want to go there to learn about the history and discover the characteristics of the northwestern region.
Vietravel tour will take visitors to the Cemetery of Martyrs on A1 Hill, the Dien Bien Phu Museum, Muong Thanh Bridge and some villages of ethnic minorities like Men, Thanh Nua, Ten, Thanh Xuong, Phieng Loi and Him Lam as well as other places.
The price for a 3-4 day Hanoi-Dien Bien tour is VND2-3 million per person, travel by air with Vietnam Airlines.
Director of the Dien Bien City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Pham Van Hung, said that tens of thousands of travellers visited Dien Bien in the recent holiday (April 30-May 2). During this time, the six northwestern provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Son La and Hoa Binh organised the Cultural, Sports and Tourism Festival of Northwestern Ethnic Groups 2009 in Lai Chau.
Hung said all hotels and inns in Dien Bien city and Dien Bien district were occupied this holiday. Dien Bien province has 38 hotels and inns, totalling nearly 800 rooms with 2,000 beds.
    Travellers can go to Dien Bien by air or by land. From Hanoi, visitors will go on National Highway 6 through Hoa Binh, Son La to Dien Bien or from Lao Cai, along National Highway 4D to Lai Chau and Dien Bien.
Vietnam Airlines has daily flights from Hanoi to Dien Bien city and vice versa, using 70-seat ATR72. The travelling time is only one hour.