Vietnam has more than 3,000 major historical sites and tens of thousands of smaller ones scattered across the country and there is an urgent need to restore and preserve them at any cost.

The Foreign Ministry has called upon diplomats at home and abroad to vote Ha Long Bay as one of new world wonders.

As scheduled, the classic drama Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare will be performed in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi from May 3-17.

An exhibition entitled “Wartime Sketches” by war veteran Pham Ngoc Lieu is being held at the Vietnam Military History Museum.

Thousands of visitors and nearly 100 delegations of pilgrims from Da Nang took part in the 2009 Ponaga Tower Festival, which opened in Nha Trang in the south central province of Khanh Hoa on April 16. 

Traditional music and dances of the Cham, Khmer, Hoa and Kinh communities will be performed on April 15 to celebrate the first ever Vietnamese Ethnic Groups’ Culture Day on April 19.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will invest more than VND19 billion in restoring Phu Quoc Prison- a historic site in the southern province of Kien Giang this year.

New Zealand has agreed to help Vietnam train personnel for the Human Resource Forecasting Centre and improving English teaching and use in the national educational system.

The award-winning Vietnamese film “Trang noi day gieng” (Moon at the Bottom of the Well) is being screened at several prestigious US universities from March 26 to April 22 to introduce Vietnam’s diverse culture to American audiences.

Vietnam’s Jewelry Beauty Queen pageant 2009 opened in Can Tho City on April 14.

Vietnam’s ethnic minority cultural day will be held for the first time at the culture and tourism village for Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups in Hanoi’s Tay Son town from April 18 to 19.

Photos of Vietnamese land and people taken by professional photographer Sergio Sanz Egea were on display in Zaragoza’s Spain in April.

Vietnam will participate in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012 in a bid to draw up a suitable education strategy that meets international standards by 2020.

Vietnam’s 2006 bestseller Nhat Ky Dang Thuy Tram (Dang Thuy Tram’s Diary) has been made into a film to be screened on National Reunification Day (April 30) this year.

Students from four Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand joined a cultural exchange programme in Ho Chi Minh City on April 12.

The 2009 Japanese cherry blossom festival in Hanoi has not lived up to visitors’ expectations as they claimed that the trees did not blossom as beautifully as they did last year.

The 7th cultural, sports and tourism festival of the Khmer ethnic group opened in Tri Ton district of the southern province of An Giang on April 11 to celebrate their traditional New Year – Chol Chnam Thmay.

The 2009 Cultural and Tourism Week will begin in the northern tourist resort town of Sapa on May 1, and is expected to attract a large number of visitors.

An exhibition of photographs by Vietnamese artist Long Thanh will be held in Lecco, Italy from May 9 to July 10.

As many as 400 branches of Japanese cherry trees and 400 carp streamers have been transported by air to Hanoi in preparation for the city’s Japanese cherry festival, according to Satoshi Fujisawa, secretary of the Japan-Vietnam cultural exchange society.

The Vietnamese and 20 other embassies in Canada attended an international culture festival held at Algonquin University in Ottawa on April 7.

Another two sets of dan da (stone percussion instruments) have recently been discovered in the central highland province of Lam Dong, making a total five lithophones found locally to date.

Hanoi will host the first large-scaled exhibition on culture, sports and tourism from August 3-9 to celebrate its millennium anniversary in 2010.

The Republic of Korea embassy in Vietnam and Kumho Aisana Corporation has co-ordinated to open a pavilion to promote the image of Ha Long Bay in Daewoo Hotel, Hanoi on April 7.

A delegation of 30 young Vietnamese people will participate in a youth exchange programme between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) which will be held in the RoK from April 6-15.

The Vietnam-France Friendship Association held a number of arts and cultural activities at the Palace of Culture in Tremblay les Villages in France from April 3-5.

Hanoians can enjoy two jazz concerts by artist Quyen Van Minh and his bands at the Hanoi Opera House this month.

The 12th international UNESCO-University and Heritage Forum is taking place in the city with the participation of nearly 400 delegates, including 280 foreigners from 52 countries.

The Visual Worship Institute in Seoul is holding the  “Extend a Hand to Vietnam” exhibition from April 2-15 to display more than 220 photos on Vietnam.

The 2009 Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival, the 5th such annual event, opened on April 3 at Dam Sen Cultural Park by the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Tourism Association.