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WHEN WAR GIVES WAY TO ‘WELCOME’
Once a strife-torn city, Da Nang now Vietnam’s ‘most livable city’
Story and photos by Joel C. Paredes
D
A NANG first gained international prominence when American troops landed in the central coastal city, marking the beginning of the Vietnam War in 1965.
However, for the Vietnamese people, the city was immortalized after the “Tet” Offensive three years later, when the North Vietnamese forces suffered a major defeat in their series of attacks during the traditional lunar new year festival. Today, except for its war museums, remnants of its strifetorn years which ended when the Americans left the country in 1975 are now hardly felt. Da Nang has emerged as a thriving tourism destination. Local authorities even tagged it as the “most livable city” in Vietnam. Da Nang, a city of a over a million people, is described as “smaller and tamer than Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi,” but with “everything big cities [in Vietnam] have to offer,” according to one local publication. “It comes with a friendly and laid-back beach town that keeps
the pace slow,” the report added. The city was also cited by the national government for its “sound social welfare policies, uniform and modern infrastructure development, and favorable policies for both local and foreign investors.” Despite such hype in Da Nang’s liberal policies, it remains
one of the country’s five “directcontrolled municipalities” under the central government, and the Communist Party as the city government’s leading organ. In fact, it was the party’s “Politburo” Resolution No. 43 entitled “On Development of Da Nang by
2030 with Vision Towards 2045,” released in 2019 that ordered city authorities to make greater strides forward with a view to becoming a “livable city” in Asia. For starters, the city authorities ensured that public toilets are Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES Q US 55.8200 Q JAPAN 0.3771 Q UK 71.5054 Q HK 7.1375 Q CHINA 7.7602 Q SINGAPORE 41.8723 Q AUSTRALIA 36.9305 Q EU 61.1229 Q KOREA 0.0422 Q SAUDI ARABIA 14.8833 Source: BSP (March 8, 2024)