Hue City, March 25, 2011
Danang, China Beach, My Son... those places conjure up many images in your mind of a time past and war history in Vietnam. For some this was a home, for others a temporary place in the military, but for now, Danang is booming. China Beach, an expansive beautiful beach in Danang, shows a stark contrast in time. On one end are the old times - fishing boats anchored off shore, and small village near. On the other end of the beach, a mile or so south, 5 star resort hotels are rising up. This is an image of the growth in Danang. After the war, with a large airbase built and left by the US military and with a large commercial river feeding it, Danang was poised to grow and it did.
On one end of Danang, is Marble Mountain, a mountain of solid marble. Extracting this sculpture resource has created a thriving industry at its base where local artists have sculpted everything from dining tables to Buddha statues. I visited a factory there.
A little east and in the mountains and jungle nearby Danang is My Son.
My Son was a religious center built between the 4th and 13th centuries AD by the Cham people, an ancient group of people in Vietnam. It was "discovered" by the French in the 1890's. It's a complex of monuments and towers built by carefully constructed bricks. Unfortunately of the nearly 70 towers at My Son, more than 50 were destroyed or damaged by American bombing during the war. My Son was a hot bed of activity during the war. You can still see large bomb craters nearby. My Son is a World Heritage site. Boy this was a hot day in the jungle, I feel for those who crawled through this jungle for days on end.
I made Danang my base to visit Hue, My Son and the old city of Hoi An. Two days here and the other two days in Hue.
Back for a report on my visit to Hue
Photos: River walkway in Danang; Marble sculpture at Marble mountain; Towers at My Son; The "new" China beach
Videos: "Traffic circle" below my hotel in Danang, note how they move like a symphony, looking out for each other!; Ancient Cham dance, recreated by the locals at My Son.
Bill
