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Sprawling:
Nha Trang’s coastline is not only ideal for
swimmers but is also fit for water sports.
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by
Nguyen Viet Truong
Not many
visitors to Viet Nam miss the chance to spend a few days soaking
up the sun and sea in Nha Trang, the provincial township of Khanh
Hoa, and in the next few weeks they will also be able to soak up a
little history.
Celebrations
to mark the central coastal province’s 350th anniversary have
already begun, with activities to culminate in a street parade to
be held on April 2.
Nha Trang
does not mean any particular thing in the Vietnamese language but
historians have not been able to track down whether it was the
first Vietnamese settlers in the mid 17th century or French
colonialists two centuries later who first coined the name.
What they do
know is that the province of Khanh Hoa first became an
administrative entity under the rule of Nguyen Lord Nguyen Phuc
Tan 350 years ago.
An advance
party was sent to the region to set up a station in preparation
for the arrival of the first northern Vietnamese farmers and
fishermen.
Before the
first wave of Vietnamese settlers, however, the region was
populated by the Cham people.
A harmonious
co-existence between the Cham and Viet people was described in the
17th-century Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi (History of the Great Southern
Region) as the key to the area’s prosperity.
"The
region was famous for its rustic traditional customs. Its
scholarly residents look humble and quiet while its ordinary
people are industrious and gentle. The residents, who lead a
simple life, wear only white clothes as they dislike colourful
fabrics. While residents living along the shore are devoted to
fishing, those living in the mountains tend their rice fields and
grow mulberry to feed silkworms to supply the local weaving
business. The whole community assists each other in their weddings
and funerals," the book states.
Historians
believe the region would have been an untamed wilderness
criss-crossed by the Cai River when the Viet first settled there.
The Cham
called the Cai River’s mouth, Ya Trang, and historians have
hypothesised that the Viet renamed the river mouth and the entire
coastal region Nha Trang.
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In
the shade: A child builds a sand castle
while parents take time out to relax.
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| Idyllic
setting: Locals head to the beach when the
sun begins to set. — VNS Photos Tien Dung |
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Long before
the French invasion 114 years ago, the region was already a
bustling trading region between north and south.
The first
Catholic missionaries in the early 18th century provide us with
European impressions of the area.
One letter
written by a French bishop named Martin in 1715 talked about a
Dutch ship that sank off the Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands. In his
letter, Martin mentions "un port nomme Nhatlang" (a
rivermouth of Nha Trang).
In another
letter in 1718 Martin talked about "le canton Nhatlang"
(the county of Nha Trang).
The first
Vietnamese description of Nha Trang as a busy trading site was
written in the late 17th century by mandarin Le Qui Don, who
travelled to the province to work as governor.
Director of
Khanh Hoa’s 350th Anniversary Orga-nisation Committee, Nguyen
Van Khanh, says the first settlers came from different ethnic
backgrounds, making the province an attractive destination for
Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Indian traders.
Khanh said
settlers surrounded the trading hub with fertile arable fields
planted with rice and cash crops.
The plains
were famous for pottery and bronze and copper casting businesses
while the local jungles were known for providing fragrant wood,
bee honey, wax and rattan.
When the
French arrived in 1889 they were confronted with a small fishing
village where the small houses’ roofs were covered with white
lime, hence the possible origins of the name from Nha Trang.
Within just
several decades the French turned the small fishing village into
the country’s most popular seaside resort town.
The
French-built Nui (Mountain) Church still stands on Nguyen Trai
Boulevard as do the Pasteur Institute, the Oceanographic Institute
and the Grand Hotel.
Local
residents still appreciate the French’s meticulous urban
planning which combined man-made attractions with the beautiful
natural setting.
A new wave
of urban-isation launched by the present-day authorities has seen
the city sprawl out from its original boundaries along the coast.
New suburbs
are encroaching on the white sandy beaches and the old town is
adding more and more hotels and restaurants to satisfy the
increasing numbers of tourists.
However, the
influx of tourists has not stopped the town holding on to the
fishing and farming traditions which characterised its first days.
— VNS
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