'French Village' to open soon to tourists in Danang

French Village, as the site is officially known, also includes a hotel, a shopping mall, restaurants, and an indoor theme park, news website Zing reported.

Its investors expect the US$70-million village to bring tourists back to the time when the mountain, about 46 kilometers southwest of Danang, was home to a luxury resort built by French colonialists in 1901 for military officials and high-ranking civil servants.

Ba Na, which is nearly 1,450 meters above the sea, once had more than 200 French-styled villas, hotels, market, opera house, and stadium.

Most of them, however, were destroyed after the 1945 August Revolution that forced the French to withdraw from Vietnam.

The remains of the former resort are now just small paved paths, moss-covered walls, or ruins of fireplaces.

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