Family estate to move offshore

The Nguyen estate with its five traditional houses in Nha Trang has been sold to a property developer that plans to move it lock, stock and barrel to an island just off the central coast city.
Hoang Hoa Thon, as the estate in Phuoc Dong Commune is known, has housed generations of the distinguished medical family but will soon be full of tourists in its new location on Tam Island.
Nguyen Van Phung thought about it long and hard after the Hon Tam Bien Nha Trang Joint Stock Company asked if it could buy his ancestral home.
He says he finally agreed as the new location would make Hoang Hoa Thon better known to both Vietnamese and foreigners, and show them how Vietnamese people lived in the past.
Hoang Hoa Thon was built around 1950 by Phung's father and uncle, who had moved from Phu Vang District in Thua Thien, now Thua Thien-Hue Province, to the south.
Covering more than 3,000 square meters, the estate consists of five traditional-style houses surrounded by lawns, trees and flowers in abundance.
The central building has seven apartments and 56 pillars, one of the smaller ones has two floors and 20 pillars, and the other three have five apartments, double wing roofs and 36 pillars each.
The garden has a lake, many rocks carved with poems in calligraphy, paths shaded by bamboo and other perennial trees, and hundreds of age-old cherry trees that draw admiring looks and comments when in bloom.
A cultural heritage
At the handover ceremony last month, a tile was removed from the roof of the main house and presented to Phung, the company's deputy general director.
Phung's superior, general director Doan Van Trang, promised to take special care of his company's latest acquisition.
"We consider Hoang Hoa Thon to be a part of Vietnam's cultural heritage, so all the unique features will be preserved," Trang said.
The big move will start as soon as possible so that Hoang Hoa Thon can be ready for tourists by the end of next month.