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Ho Chi Minh City authorities have approved a plan to light up Saigon’s skies with firework displays to mark the 44th anniversary of Reunification Day (April 30), the end of the Vietnam War, as well as the International Labor Day (May 1).
There will be two high-altitude firework displays: one over the Thu Thiem Tunnel that links Districts 1 and 2; and another at the 81-storeyed building Landmark 81 in Binh Thanh District.
A low-altitude display will take place at the Dam Sen Park in District 11.
Officials said the city intends to use private funding for the fireworks shows.
Letting off fireworks to mark major national celebrations like the Tet Lunar New Year holiday, Reunification Day on April 30 and Independence Day on September 2 has for long been a tradition in Vietnam.
Reunification Day and Labor Day are public holidays in Vietnam.
This is the second time a pyrotechnic show will be organized at the Landmark 81, the first one being the Tet fireworks in February.
Said to be the 14th tallest building in the world by the Skyscraper Center, Landmark 81 officially opened for business in July last year. The mixed-use building has hotels, apartments, offices, a shopping mall, restaurants, and bars.
Other activities planned by the city administration to celebrate the national holidays include artistic street lighting, a photo exhibition on Nguyen Hue pedestrian street and the annual Ho Chi Minh Television cycling race.
The celebrations are expected to attract a lot of visitors to the city.
Ho Chi Minh City welcomed a record high 2.25 million foreign tourists in the first three months of this year, up 10 percent from a year earlier. The city accounted for half the total number of foreign arrivals in Vietnam during the period, according to the city’s tourism department.
Foreign arrivals in the country went up seven percent year-on-year to 4.5 million in the first quarter, the General Statistics Office reported.
Japan, South Korea, China and the U.S. were the four biggest groups of foreigners visiting HCMC, helping it earn Q1 tourism revenues of VND39.8 trillion ($1.71 billion).
