Mekong Delta hub set for Tet with blooming flower street

Themed ‘Spring of Hope’, the annual display will commence on Vo Van Tan - Nguyen Thai Hoc Street in Can Tho, the largest economic hub in the Mekong Delta, from January 21 to 29 to celebrate Year of the Rat, set to peak this Saturday.

The municipal tourism department said decorations would guide visitors through iconic Vietnamese landscapes, achievements, and major events.

This year’s event sources its 70,000 baskets of fresh flowers from the three famous flower-growing regions, including Phu Tho Village in Can Tho, Sa Dec Village in Dong Thap Province and Da Lat Town in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong,

Local farmers work on a garden of Chrysanthemum morifolium in Sa Dec flower village in Dong Thap Province. Photo by Nguyen Van Luan.

Around 100 workers have been busy putting together the flowery art installations over the past month, the department said.

Like Nguyen Hue flower street in Ho Chi Minh City that will open to tourists from 7 p.m. on January 22, two days before Lunar New Year’s Eve, Can Tho flower street will feature images of traditional rats based on the famous Dong Ho folk painting‘Rat’s Wedding’.

Dong Ho paintings originated in the eponymous craft village on the banks of Duong River in Bac Ninh Province, about 35 km (21 miles) from Hanoi in northern Vietnam.

Dong Ho folk painting Dam cuoi chuot or Rat's wedding.

Can Tho is one of Vietnam's five largest cities, together with Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong and Da Nang.

For years, it has gained popularity as a tourist attraction, famous for Cai Rang floating market, the biggest of its kind in the Mekong Delta where trading on waterways has been a way of life for generations.