Travel in brief 3 Dec 2010

HCM City unveils seven-day Lunar New Year celebration plans
HCM City authorities have announced a seven-day celebration of the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival beginning on January 31.
The celebration will have six programmes including the usual decoration of Nguyen Hue Street with flowers and ornamental trees, with this year's theme being New Heights.
The aim is to highlight the city's efforts to attain higher economic and social achievements.
The Nguyen Hue Flower Road will open to the public from 7pm, January 31 until 10pm February 6, 2011. The city's 24 districts will organise the banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cake) Festival. Banh Tet offerings will be made at the Temple for Hung Kings, the Ho Chi Minh Museum and the Ton Duc Thang Museum.
The streets of Nguyen Hue, Le Loi, Dong Khoi, Le Duan and Chi Lang Park will be also be decorated with colour lamps from December 17 to January 4, 2011 to celebrate the Christmas and New Year season.
Firework shows will take place at seven sites during the 15 first minutes of the New Year.
The city authority has assigned Saigontourist Holdings Co again to organise the main festivities in downtown HCM City during the forthcoming Tet festival that falls in the first week of February.
Saigontourist offers promotion for travellers to discover China
The Saigontourist Travel Service Co has launched a big promotion for travellers to China. The tour operator is co-operating with Vietnam Airlines to mark down return tour prices to around US$200 on the occasion of the carrier's launching a direct service between HCM City and Beijing in mid-December.
The promotion tours include a seven-day tour starting December 19 to Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai costing $780 per person, a six-day tour starting December 22 to Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Beijing for $766, and a four-day tour of Beijing at $442 that departs on December 20, January 13 and January 20.
‘Free and easy' tours to Thailand, Singapore, Brunei launched
For the Christmas season, the TST Tourist travel agency has launched its "Free and Easy" tours to Thailand, Singapore and Brunei for US$200-400. The tours will provide visitors with greater flexibility during the holiday. They can choose their own travel times, hotels and holiday activities, TST will help them design their own itinerary.
Meanwhile, the Lua Viet Tours have announced a five days-four nights adventure holiday to conquer the Fansipan peak in northern Viet Nam, culiminating in celebrating New Year's Eve on the "roof of Indochina". The tour, which departs December 29, costs VND3.7 million per person.
Border province plans $2 billion 186 ha casino project
The Lang Son International JSC has unveiled a plan to build a 186ha casino in the northern border city of Lang Son. In addition to the casino, the complex will include a 50,000sq.m. international shopping centre, three hotel blocks, 300 villas, and an 18-hole golf course, all of five-star standard.
"The project will be an important landmark in the Dong Dang-Lang Son Border Gate Economic Zone when it is completed after 2015," the company's general director, Lam Bao Ky, was quoted by Dau Tu (Viet Nam Investment Review) newspaper, as saying.
Under Viet Nam's laws, only foreigners and overseas Vietnamese are allowed to visit and gamble at casinos in the country.