Saigon flower street cleared in wake of Tet

A welcome gate on Nguyen Hue flower street in District 1 is dismantled following a festive week.
This year, the flower street, one of the biggest annual events in Vietnam’s southern metropolis heralding Lunar New Year, or Tet, was extended for another day until Tuesday, the fifth day of the first lunar month instead of closing Monday.

Giant buffalo mascots were relocated to tourist spots like Dam Sen in District 11, Van Thanh and Binh Quoi in Binh Thanh District.
The clean-up force included sanitation workers, electricians, staff from tourist areas, and security guards, all wearing face masks as a Covid-19 prevention measure.

Vu Duc Khoi (L) and his colleagues teamed up to carry a buffalo statue weighing more than 40 kilograms to the gathering point.
"This is the 10th year I’ve been involved in cleaning up the flower street. We had to work through the night to return the pedestrian street to its original appearance as the Tet holiday draws to a close," said the 45-year-old man.

Most of the flowers and plants are thrown away, with only a few sent to tourist areas and parks.
This year, the flower street boasts more than 100,000 flower pots, mainly imported from the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap and Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands, home to flower paradise Da Lat.

Sanitation workers classify flower pots. If the flowers are fresh, they will be stowed into trucks for reuse in tourist areas and parks.

This year, the flower street attracted 760,000 visitors, down 25 percent against the previous year as residents limit gathering in crowds due to Covid-19.

Removal of scaffolding used to construct elaborate scenery requires a little more precision.

Earlier, the opening ceremony of the flower street was canceled for the first time since its debut in 2002 as Ho Chi Minh City struggled with a new Covid-19 cluster at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
In the city, 36 people have been diagnosed with the disease since community transmissions reemerged in the country on January 28 after a 55-day clean streak. Thirty five of them are linked to the airport outbreak and the other to Hai Duong Province, the country's current Covid-19 epicenter.

"This year a fence was built close to the sidewalk of Nguyen Hue pedestrian street to prevent people from flooding the area to grab flowers during the clear out," said a supervisor.