Vietnam's cities and towns

regions

Topograhic map of Vietnam.

Vietnam is located in the southeastern extremity of the Indochinese peninsula and occupies about 331,688 square kilometers, of which about 25 % was under cultivation in 1987. It borders the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia. The S-shaped country has a north-to-south distance of 1,650 kilometers and is about 50 kilometers wide at the narrowest point. With a coastline of 3,260 kilometers, excluding islands, Vietnam claims 12 nautical miles as the limit of its territorial waters, an additional 12 nautical miles as a contiguous customs and security zone, and 200 nautical miles as an exclusive economic zone. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 305 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (755 × 1482 pixel, file size: 82 KB, MIME type: image/png) A map showing Vietnams cities and main towns. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 305 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (755 × 1482 pixel, file size: 82 KB, MIME type: image/png) A map showing Vietnams cities and main towns. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 368 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1291 × 2103 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 368 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1291 × 2103 pixel, file size: 2. ... Indochina 1886 Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. ... The Gulf of Thailand is a gulf located in the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean), surrounded by the countries Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. ... The Gulf of Tonkin is located to the south of China. ... Filipino name Tagalog: Luzon Sea Portuguese name Portuguese: Mar da China Meridional Vietnamese name Vietnamese: The South China Sea is a marginal sea south of China. ...

The boundary with Laos, settled, on an ethnic basis, between the rulers of Vietnam and Laos in the mid-seventeenth century, was formally defined by a delimitation treaty signed in 1977 and ratified in 1986. The frontier with Cambodia, defined at the time of French annexation of the western part of the Mekong River Delta in 1867, remained essentially unchanged, according to Hanoi, until some unresolved border issues were finally settled in the 1982-85 period. The land and sea boundary with China, delineated under the France-China treaties of 1887 and 1895, is "the frontier line" accepted by Hanoi that China agreed in 1957- 58 to respect. However, in February 1979, following China's limited invasion of Vietnam, Hanoi complained that from 1957 onward China had provoked numerous border incidents as part of its anti-Vietnam policy and expansionist designs in Southeast Asia. Among the territorial infringements cited was the Chinese occupation in January 1974 of the Paracel Islands, claimed by both countries in a dispute left unresolved in the 1980s. View of the Mekong before the sunset The Mekong is one of the worlds major rivers. ... Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Ná»™i, Hán Tá»±: 河内)  , estimated population 3,145,300 (2005), is the capital of Vietnam. ... Expansionism is the doctrine of expanding the territorial base (or economic influence) of a country, usually by means of military aggression. ...

Geographic coordinates: 16°00′N, 108°00′E Coordinates: 16°00′N, 108°00′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...

Physiography

Vietnam is a country of tropical lowlands, hills, and densely forested highlands, with level land covering no more than 20 % of the area. The country is divided into the highlands and the Red River delta in the north; and the Giai Truong Son (Central mountains, or the Chaîne Annamitique, sometimes referred to simply as "the Chaine."), the coastal lowlands, and the Mekong River Delta in the south. Flowing from China through Vietnam to the South China Sea, the Red River (Vietnamese Sông Hồng, Chinese Hónghé) is also known as the Yuan Jiang (元江, pinyin yuan2jiang1), which means Primary River. ...

The spectacular Ban Gioc Waterfall is 272 km north of Hanoi and few tourists are seen there. ^[1] Bang Gioc Waterfall Ban Gioc Waterfall on the Quy Xuan River is located in the Trung Khanh district in Cao Bang Province, 272 km north of Hanoi, a province in the Northeast of Vietnam that borders with China. ...

See also: Provinces of Vietnam

Administrative Divisions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam The country of Vietnam is divided into fifty-nine provinces (known in Vietnamese as tỉnh, from Chinese 省 shěng). ...

Red River Delta

The delta of the Red River (also known as the Sông Hồng), is a flat, triangular region of 3,000 square kilometers, is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in by the enormous alluvial deposits of the rivers over a period of millennia, and it advances one hundred meters into the Gulf annually. The ancestral home of the ethnic Vietnamese, the delta accounted for almost 70 % of the agriculture and 80 % of the industry of North Vietnam before 1975. Mekong River Delta from space, February 1996 Mekong Delta, February 2005. ... The Gulf of Tonkin is located to the south of China. ... A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s XinJiang Province. ...

The Red River, rising in China's Yunnan province, is about 1,200 kilometers long. Its two main tributaries, the Sông Lô (also called the Lo River, the Riviere Claire, or the Clear River) and the Sông Da (also called the Black River or Riviere Noire), contribute to its high water volume, which averages 500 million cubic meters per second, but may increase by more than 60 times at the peak of the rainy season. The entire delta region, backed by the steep rises of the forested highlands, is no more than three meters above sea level, and much of it is one meter or less. The area is subject to frequent flooding; at some places the high-water mark of floods is fourteen meters above the surrounding countryside. For centuries flood control has been an integral part of the delta's culture and economy. An extensive system of dikes and canals has been built to contain the Red River and to irrigate the rich rice-growing delta. Modeled on that of China's, this ancient system has sustained a highly concentrated population and has made double-cropping wet-rice cultivation possible throughout about half the region.   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally south of the clouds) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. ... The Black River is a river in Vietnam. ... A wet season or rainy season is a season in which the average rainfall in a region is significantly increased. ... Afsluitdijk, a 32 km dike in the Netherlands. ... Categories: Water-transport stubs | Canals | Water transport ... In agriculture, multiple cropping is the practice of growing two or more crops simultaneously in the same space during a single growing season. ...

Highlands

The highlands and mountain plateaus in the north and northwest are inhabited mainly by tribal minority groups. The Giai Truong Son (Annamite Range) originates in the Tibetan and Yunnan regions of southwest China and forms Vietnam's border with Laos and Cambodia. It terminates in the Mekong River Delta north of Hồ Chí Minh City (formerly Saigon). The Annamite Range is a mountain range of western Indochina, which extends approximately 1100 km (700 miles) through Laos and Vietnam. ... Tibet (see Name section below for other spellings) is a plateau region in Central Asia and the indigenous home to the Tibetan people. ... City skyline Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh  ) is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong Delta. ...

These central mountains, which have several high plateaus, are irregular in elevation and form. The northern section is narrow and very rugged; the country's highest peak, Fan Si Pan, rises to 3,142 meters in the extreme northwest. The southern portion has numerous spurs that divide the narrow coastal strip into a series of compartments. For centuries these topographical features not only rendered north-south communication difficult but also formed an effective natural barrier for the containment of the people living in the Mekong basin. For alternate uses of the term, see Plateau (disambiguation). ... Fan Si Pan (3143 m) is the highest mountain in Vietnam. ...

Central Highlands

Within the southern portion of Vietnam is a plateau known as the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen), approximately 51,800 square kilometers of rugged mountain peaks, extensive forests, and rich soil. Comprising 5 relatively flat plateaus of basalt soil spread over the provinces of Đắk Lắk (or "Dac Lac"), Gia Lai, and Kon Tom, the highlands account for 16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land. Before 1975, North Vietnam had maintained that the Central Highlands and the Giai Truong Son were strategic areas of paramount importance, essential to the domination not only of South Vietnam but also of the southern part of Indochina. Since 1975, the highlands have provided an area in which to relocate people from the densely populated lowlands. Tay Nguyen, translated as Central Highlands is one of the regions of Vietnam. ... Basalt Basalt (IPA: ) is a common gray to black extrusive volcanic rock. ... Dak Lak (in Vietnamese, Đắk Lắk) is a Province of Vietnam. ... Gia Lai Province is a province in Vietnam. ... There is a historical website that is nonprofit dedicated to the 1972 Easter Offensive in the Kontum area. ... In geography, arable land is a form of agricultural land use, meaning land that can be (and is) used for growing crops. ... The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN), or less commonly, Vietnamese Democratic Republic (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cá»™ng Hòa), also known as North Vietnam, was proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, September 2nd1945 and was recognized by the Peoples Republic of China and the...

Coastal lowlands

The narrow, flat coastal lowlands extend from south of the Red River Delta to the Mekong River basin. On the landward side, the Giai Truong Son rises precipitously above the coast, its spurs jutting into the sea at several places. Generally the coastal strip is fertile and rice is cultivated intensively.

Mekong River Delta

The Mekong delta, covering about 40,000 square kilometers, is a low-level plain not more than three meters above sea level at any point and criss-crossed by a maze of canals and rivers. So much sediment is carried by the Mekong's various branches and tributaries that the delta advances sixty to eighty meters into the sea every year. An official Vietnamese source estimates the amount of sediment deposited annually to be about 1 billion cubic meters, or nearly 13 times the amount deposited by the Red River. About 10,000 square kilometers of the delta are under rice cultivation, making the area one of the major rice-growing regions of the world. The southern tip, known as the Cà Mau Peninsula, or Mui Bai Bung, is covered by dense jungle and mangrove swamps. Cà Mau is a Province of Vietnam, named after its capital city. ... Above and below water view at the edge of the mangal. ...

The Mekong, which is 4,220 kilometers long, is one of the 12 great rivers of the world. From its source in the Tibetan plateau, it flows through the Tibetan and Yunnan regions of China, forms the boundary between Laos and Myanmar as well as between Laos and Thailand, divides into two branches - the Song Hau Giang and Song Tien Giang - below Phnom Penh, and continues through Cambodia and the Mekong basin before draining into the South China Sea through nine mouths known as the cuu long (nine dragons). The river is heavily silted and is navigable by seagoing craft of shallow draft as far as Kompong Cham in Cambodia. A tributary entering the river at Phnom Penh drains the Tonlé Sap, a shallow freshwater lake that acts as a natural reservoir to stabilize the flow of water through the lower Mekong. When the river is in flood stage, its silted delta outlets are unable to carry off the high volume of water. Floodwaters back up into the Tonlé Sap, causing the lake to inundate as much as 10,000 square kilometers. As the flood subsides, the flow of water reverses and proceeds from the lake to the sea. The effect is to reduce significantly the danger of devastating floods in the Mekong delta, where the river floods the surrounding fields each year to a level of one to two meters. Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and Sichuan Province of China lie on the Tibetan Plateau. ... Phnom Penh (Khmer: ; official Romanization: Phnum Pénh; IPA: ) is the largest, most populous and capital city of Cambodia. ... Filipino name Tagalog: Luzon Sea Portuguese name Portuguese: Mar da China Meridional Vietnamese name Vietnamese: The South China Sea is a marginal sea south of China. ... NASA satellite image of the Tonle Sap (the Great Lake) The Tonlé Sap (meaning Large Fresh Water River but more commonly translated as Great Lake) is a combined lake and river system of huge importance to Cambodia. ... For the village on the Isle of Wight, see Freshwater, Isle of Wight. ... Silt is soil or rock derived granular material of a specific grain size. ...

Climate

Typhoon Lingling off the coast of Vietnam, 2001

Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate, with humidity averaging 84 % throughout the year. However, because of differences in latitude and the marked variety of topographical relief, the climate tends to vary considerably from place to place. During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along the China coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture; consequently the winter season in most parts of the country is dry only by comparison with the rainy or summer season. During the southwesterly summer monsoon, occurring from May to October, the heated air of the Gobi Desert rises, far to the north, inducing moist air to flow inland from the sea and deposit heavy rainfall. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1545x2000, 1269 KB) Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC This MODIS image from November 11, 2001, shows Typhoon Lingling in the South China Sea, buffeting the coast of Vietnam. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1545x2000, 1269 KB) Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC This MODIS image from November 11, 2001, shows Typhoon Lingling in the South China Sea, buffeting the coast of Vietnam. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Latitude,usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi, , gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. ... The Gobi Desert lies in the territory of the Peoples Republic of China and the Country of Mongolia. ...

Annual rainfall is substantial in all regions and torrential in some, ranging from 120 centimeters to 300 centimeters. Nearly 90 % of the precipitation occurs during the summer. The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains and plateaus. Temperatures range from a low of 5°C in December and January, the coolest months, to more than 37°C in April, the hottest month. Seasonal divisions are more clearly marked in the northern half than in the southern half of the country, where, except in some of the highlands, seasonal temperatures vary only a few degrees, usually in the 21°C-28°C range.

Area and boundaries

Area:

total: 329 560 km²

land: 325 360 km²

water: 4 200 km²

Area - comparative:

slightly larger than the state of New Mexico in the United States.

slightly smaller than Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

somewhat less than half as big as New South Wales, Australia.

about 1⅓ times the United Kingdom's size.

Land Boundaries: Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ... Motto: Quaerite Prime Regnum Dei (Latin: Seek ye first the kingdom of God) Capital St. ... Capital Sydney Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Professor Marie Bashir Premier Morris Iemma (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 50  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $305,437 (1st)  - Product per capita  $45,153/person (4th) Population (End of March 2006)  - Population  6,817,100 (1st)  - Density  8. ...

total: 4 639 km

border countries: Cambodia (1 228 km), China (1 281 km), Laos (2 130 km)

Coastline: 3 444 km (excludes islands)

Maritime Claims:

contiguous zone: 24 nautical miles (44 km)

continental shelf: 200 nautical miles (370 km) or to the edge of the continental margin

exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km)

territorial sea: 12 nautical miles (22 km)

Elevation extremes: A nautical mile or sea mile is a unit of length. ...

lowest point: South China Sea 0 m

highest point: Fansipan 3 143 m

Fansipan or Fan Si Pan (Phan Xi Păng in Vietnamese) is a mountain in Vietnam, the highest in Indochina, at 3,143 m. ...

Resources and land use

Natural resources: phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil and gas deposits, forests, hydropower In chemistry, a phosphate is a polyatomic ion or radical consisting of one phosphorus atom and four oxygen. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel formed in swamp ecosystems where plant remains were saved by water and mud from oxidization and biodegradation. ... General Name, Symbol, Number manganese, Mn, 25 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 7, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight 54. ... Bauxite with penny Bauxite with core of unweathered rock Bauxite is an aluminium ore. ... A sample of ammonium dichromate Chromates and dichromates are salts of chromic acid and dichromic acid, respectively. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A forest is an area with a high density of trees (or, historically, a wooded area set aside for hunting). ... Undershot water wheels on the Orontes River in Hama, Syria Saint Anthony Falls Hydropower is the capture of the energy of moving water for some useful purpose. ...

Land use:

arable land: 17%

permanent crops: 4%

permanent pastures: 1%

forests and woodland: 30%

other: 48% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 18,600 km² (1993 est.)

Environmental concerns

Natural hazards: occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding A flood (in Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages; compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float) is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land, a deluge. ...

Environment - current issues:

Logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices contribute to deforestation and soil degradation; water pollution and overfishing threaten marine life populations; groundwater contamination limits potable water supply; growing urban industrialization and population migration are rapidly degrading environment in Hanoi and Hồ Chí Minh City Logging is the process in which trees are cut down usually as part of a timber harvest. ... Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area or wasteland. ... Retrogression and degradation are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. ... Raw sewage and industrial waste flows into the U.S. from Mexico as the New River passes from Mexicali, Baja California to Calexico, California Water pollution is a large set of adverse effects upon water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater caused by human activities. ... × The Traffic Light colour convention, showing the concept of Harvest Control Rule (HCR), specifying when a rebuilding plan is mandatory in terms of precautionary and limit reference points for spawning biomass and fishing mortality rate. ... Marine biology is the study of animal and plant life within saltwater ecosystems. ... Raw sewage and industrial waste flows into the U.S. from Mexico as the New River passes from Mexicali, Baja California to Calexico, California Water pollution is a large set of adverse effects upon water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater caused by human activities. ... Drinking water Mineral Water Drinking water is water that is intended to be ingested by humans. ...

Environment - international agreements:

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution (MARPOL 73/78), Wetlands, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Nuclear Test Ban Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity is the variation of taxonomic life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth. ... UNFCCC logo. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... The Siberian Tiger is a subspecies of tiger that are critically endangered. ... note - abbreviated as Environmental Modification opened for signature - December 10, 1976 entered into force - October 5, 1978 objective - to prohibit the military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques in order to further world peace and trust among nations parties - (66) Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria... Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one or more of these characteristics: ignitability corrosivity reactivity (explosive) toxicity Many types of businesses generate hazardous waste. ... Admiralty law (usually referred to as simply admiralty and also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. ... Ship Pollution is an abbreviated form of the Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships, 1973. ... A subtropical wetland in Florida, USA, with an endangered American Crocodile. ... Earth as seen by Apollo 17 The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty on global warming. ... The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes and was opened for signature in New York on 24 September 1996, when it was signed by 71 States, including the five nuclear weapon states at the time (which did not...

See also

• Vietnam
• Halong Bay
• List of endangered species in Vietnam

Halong Bay (Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long) is a bay located in the Gulf of Tonkin, 170 kilometres east of Hanoi, in northern Vietnam near the border with China. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.