Ancient town preservation plan gets a go-ahead

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a master plan on preserving, restoring and promoting the values of the ancient town of Pho Hien in the northern province of Hung Yen by 2020.
The plan will zone the architectural space for preservation and will be divided into seven sub-projects.
Subprojects No. 1, 2, 3 and 5, to be implemented between 2010-2015, will classify the relics, relocate residents from the relic sites and conduct excavation work.
Under subprojects No. 4 and 6, relics within and outside the boundary of the ancient Pho Hien will be restored, while subproject No. 7, to start in 2015, will improve the community’s capacity in management and protection of the relics.
Formed in the early 16th century, Pho Hien, 62 km northeast of Hanoi, was a crowded and bustling commercial port, receiving ships from China, Japan, Indonesia, the UK and France.
At present, Pho Hien remains an ancient architectural area with streets bearing the Asian-European architecture, over 60 historical relics and 100 steles together with many temples and pagodas.