Vietnam’s rich culture is being introduced for the first time at the Fortenzza Summer Fair, which takes place in the Italian city of Florence from July 21 to August 15.

Three Irish artists, including famous Mick Moloney, will perform together with Vietnamese colleagues at the Vietnam National Conservatoire in Hanoi on August 10.

The central province of Thua Thien Hue has been spending VND49 trillion on 43 construction projects for its 2012 National Tourism Year.

A moving story about a family whose lives were in danger because of people's lack of environmental awareness has won the first monthly award of a video clip competition run by Siemens Vietnam. 

Fahasa, a leading book distributor in Vietnam, plans to have between 100-120 bookstores cross the country, many of them in northern provinces by 2020.

Vietnamese students, together with others from the region, will take part in the Southeast Asian Student Documentary Award for the first time this year.

A photo exhibition detailing Vietnam-Thailand relations opened at the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi on August 4.

The Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam will launch a singing contest named “K-POP” in Vietnam in order to select the winner for the international K-POP competition to be held in the Republic of Korea (RoK) on November 26.

A 13th-15th century piece of Buddhist architecture has just been unearthed in a garden in the north-western province of Yen Bai. 

More than 500 artisans, artists and athletics from Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces are attending the Vietnam Coastal Village Festival which opened in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan on August 2.

Photos of HCM City at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century are being displayed outside the HCM City Museum.

A collection of precious gems went on display at an exhibition on ancient Vietnamese jewels at the Vietnam History Museum in Hanoi on August 2.

Female Vietnamese student Ha Vi Chau has won a full scholarship from the United World Colleges (UWC) worth nearly VND1 billion per year to study abroad in the 2011-2012 academic year.

The UK TNT art troupe will perform a Macbeth opera in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City in late October and early November.

Khieu Thi Huyen Trang, winner of Vietnam’s Next Top Model 2010, was awarded the Best Asian Super Model title in the 23rd World Best Model contest held in Plovdiv City, Bulgaria from July 23-31.

A Sino-Nom calligraphy training programme will open at Van Mieu (the Temple of Literature) in Hanoi this September.

A group of 18 Vietnamese piano students aged 9-24 have excelled at the sixth Asia International Piano Academy Festival (AIPAF).

A press conference was held in Hanoi on July 28 to announce the prize winning photos from a contest based on Vietnam’s cultural heritages.

Vietnam’s pho and goi cuon (fresh spring roll) have been added to the list of the world’s 50 most delicious foods by the CNN GO website of the US CNN television channel. 

Muslims from the Cham ethnic group in south central Ninh Thuan province will celebrate their annual traditional Ramadan festival from July 29-31. 

Central Highland Gia Lai province is currently having more than 5,600 sets of gongs, a musical percussion instrument that earned UNESCO’s world intangible heritage recognition for its cultural space.

Vietnamese young artists Nguyen Hoang Tung (Oboe) and Nguyen Thanh Tu (Cello) have been selected to attend the Asian Youth Orchestra.

The 17th Vietnam Film Festival will be held in the southcentral province of Phu Yen from December 16-18.

An art performance programme featuring Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia will be held in the central province of Quang Tri from July 22-26.

Traces of prehistoric man have been found near Ba Be Lake, in the northern province of Bac Can.

The Ha Tinh provincial Museum on July 21 found a set of three ancient jack-tree wooden bells preserved in Ha Linh pagoda in Tien Loc commune, Can Loc district.

An art performance was held in Hanoi on July 21 to mark the 64th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs’ Day (July 27).

The Official Korea Tourism Organisation has invited pop singer My Linh to act as Korean tourism ambassador to Vietnam in 2011.

As many as 127 Vietnamese children will take part in the final round of the first Vietnam Beyblade Championship at the Ho Chi Minh Youth Cultural House on July 23.

I had done my research before signing up for a four day, three night cycling tour in Lao Cai province with Lotussia Travel. My friends thought I was mad cycling around one of the most mountainous parts of northern Vietnam!