(Recast) Feature: Vietnam's biggest city goes from bust to boom

Wearing big black earmuffs, holding a real U.S.-made M60 machine gun and fixing his sharp eyes on the target, Nguyen Quoc Vinh pulls the trigger, creating a continuous ear-splitting noise. The high school graduate from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City seems engrossed by glorified battles, like the real ones his grandparents were involved in 40 years ago. "I feel like Rambo. Using a heavy M60, Rambo makes bullets drop like rain,"Quoc Vinh said, breaking into a broad grin after firing dozens of bullets in fully automatic mode at the Cu Chi shooting range at the Historic Relics and Cu Chi Tunnel Complex in Ho Chi Minh City.

The young man, who has recently left Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School in the city, told Xinhua that he would have fired some 500 rounds per minute if they had not been too costly at nearly 2 U.S. dollars per bullet.

Decades ago, bullets and bombs were used to kill or injure millions of soldiers as well as civilians during the Vietnam War, not to entertain ordinary people like Quoc Vinh in recent years. Forty years ago, on April 30, 1975, tanks of the Vietnam People's Army crashed through the presidential palace of the Saigon regime, just before the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government surrendered to North Vietnam, ending the Vietnam War among many belligerent parties, including South Vietnam, North Vietnam, the U. S., South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

These days, Ho Chi Minh City looks like a giant theme park with many streets shaded by fresh flowers and green trees, and symbolic buildings beautified by lighting effects and colorful panels. Downtown streets such as Dong Khoi, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, Le Loi and Ham Nghi are lit up by LED lights displaying the national flag, flowers, doves and the number 40 which stands for the 40th anniversary of national reunification. The 262-meter high Bitexco Financial Tower, the third highest building in Vietnam, features laser lights which shoot out in all four directions.

Late at night, many small families and large groups of youngsters in stylish brand-named costumes go into the new trade center named SC VivoCity in District 7. On the 5th floor, many are queuing up to enter Vietnam's first and only IMAX cinema, which opened on April 19. They want to enjoy the latest U.S. blockbuster film "Avengers: Age of Ultron"in IMAX format on a large curved screen. On the night of April 28, many local movie-goers happily told Xinhua they have already watched the movie several days before its release in the U.S. "Early this year, I still thought that I would have to fly to Singapore or Thailand to watch IMAX movies. But now we can enjoy them at the CGV cinema just a short walk from our home,"said Nguyen Thi Hang, a 38-year-old prosecutor.

Many find it hard to believe that Vietnam in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular have experienced such drastic change since the war which ended 40 years ago. Beyond the big cinema screen lies the real secret to Vietnam's post-war success: its thriving industrial base.

Excluding some symbolic buildings which have remained almost unchanged since the war, such as Ben Thanh Market, the Independence Hall (the presidential palace of the Saigon regime) and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral Basilica, many areas in the city have, in recent years, been transformed from wasteland and slums into multi-storied buildings, including officer towers, supermarkets, entertainment centers and apartment blocks. High cranes, heavy bulldozers and bulky excavators are working there almost around the clock.

Contractors are speeding up construction of the metro route No. 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, the first of its kind in Vietnam, with a total investment cost of over 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. Passing through the districts of 1, 2,8, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc and Binh Duong Province's Di An District,the 20-km route is scheduled to become operational in 2020. Construction of the metro route No. 2, connecting the districts of 1, 3, 10, 12, Tan Binh and Tan Phu, is also underway, at a cost of nearly 2.2 billion U.S. dollars.

In the city, large groups of local people and foreign tourists can be seen enjoying food and drinks in chains like Starbucks, Caffe Bene, KFC, Pizza Hut and Lotteria, or tirelessly dancing in discotheques. Many local residents have deserted traditional open- air markets to dote on foreign or Vietnamese-invested supermarkets such as Big C, Metro and Saigon Co.opmart.

Many local consumers have moved towards non-cash payments. More and more local people are using domestic bank cards and at least one credit card, mostly Visa or MasterCard, for purchases at supermarkets and online. The number of small clusters of ATMs in shopping malls or standalone machines beside crowded streets is continually growing. Bank Card Association of Vietnam has recently announced that, by the end of April 2015, the number of bank cards issued nationwide was 85.9 million, up 30 percent compared to 2013, including 63.5 million cards still in circulation. Transactions through cards last year increased over 13 percent in volume and 16 percent in value, mainly for payments for goods and services.

In the 2011-2015 period, Ho Chi Minh City, despite the effects of the global and local economic downturn, is estimated to post an average GDP growth of 9.6 percent a year, 1.7 times higher than Vietnam's, said Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the municipal's People' s Committee. The city, named after the late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, takes up only 0.6 percent of Vietnam's land area and makes up only 8.8 percent of its population, but contributes up to 21 percent to the country's GDP and 30 percent to the state budget, he said. The income per capita of the city's residents is estimated at 5,538 U.S. dollars in 2015, over 15 times higher than the figure in 1976 and 5.5 times higher than that in 2000.

Ho Chi Minh City holds many national and regional record titles in terms of investment and infrastructure. Established in 2001, Quang Trung Software Park, home to many IT firms, including HP, IBM and KDDI, is Vietnam's first software park. The 300-hectare Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone is the first of its kind in the country. The Saigon River Tunnel, or Thu Thiem Tunnel, which opened to traffic in 2011, is considered the region's most modern underwater tunnel. In the city, Phu My Hung has been recognized as Vietnam's model urban area, while Thu Thiem new urban area is regarded as the Pudong of Shanghai, China. According to the city' s Department of Planning and Investment,the city currently has 5, 310 valid foreign-invested projects with combined capital of nearly 36.3 billion U.S. dollars.

After national reunification in 1975 came what was perhaps the most fundamental improvement in the material and spiritual life of people of Vietnam, the adoption of the"Doi Moi"(Renewal) policy which prioritizes economic reforms on a foundation of social and political stability. The renewal process has helped Vietnam thrive compared to the economic crisis and associated food shortages and great dependence on the former Soviet Union in the early 1980s. The policy has helped Vietnam promote its image in the international arena and enhance its relations with foreign countries, including former foe America. "It took vision, hard work, and most of all, trust, to get us to this point (good Vietnam-U.S. relations). If we have learned anything over the past 20 years, it's that nothing is impossible," U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius said in mid-April. Vietnam and the U.S. are preparing for a visit by the Vietnamese party's General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the U.S. this year, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. "I like shooting, but just for fun. When visiting the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, seeing crimes committed by U. S. soldiers to Vietnamese people, especially civilians, even young people like us, who were born after the war, hate the U.S. to some extent. However, let bygones be bygones, old foes can become new friends,"Quoc Vinh said as he finished firing his machine gun at Cu Chi Tunnels, the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War. Endi