Feature: First walking street in Vietnam kaleidoscopic magnet for visitors, setting blueprint for future

Among thousands of Vietnamese residents and foreign visitors gathering on Vietnam's first walking street everyday, it is easy to know who are the fans of water shows or admirers of late President Ho Chi Minh but almost impossible to pinpoint pickpockets, bag grabbers and undercover policemen.

On the evening of Saturday May 23, the open space around the musical fountain in Ho Chi Minh City's Nguyen Hue walking street was packed like sardines. While many youths used their iPhones or iPads to take selfies, younger kids were transfixed by lively shows of dancing water jets and color-changing laser lights synchronized with an ebullient melody of a song about Ho Chi Minh City.

Standing behind her plump teenage daughter, Tran Ngoc Anh, a Vietnam Airlines ticket agent residing in Hanoi, told Xinhua that she spent 8 million Vietnamese dong, some 370 U.S. dollars, buying two return tickets from the capital city to Ho Chi Minh City just to visit the walking street and watch a movie in IMAX format.

Vietnam's first and only walking street is in District 1 and the country's first and only IMAX cinema is in District 7, both of which were inaugurated some weeks ago, sparking her lavish spending. "At school, my little daughter receives 'Uncle Ho's Good Children"certificates year after year, so this time I brought her here to contemplate the musical fountain and the new statue of Uncle Ho surrounded by lotuses, with her own eyes, so that she will become even more motivated to study hard and behave well," said the stylish mother sporting a navy Christian Dior dress.

Standing nearby, a toothless man named Nguyen Son from District 3 joined the conversation. "We do not have the resources to fly to Hanoi to visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, so we often come here to express our deep respect to the Vietnamese hero of national liberation and great man of culture, as well as to have a good time with our children and grandchildren," the elderly man said proudly.

According to Tran Ngoc Anh, the walking street looks like Cinderella dressed in old rags, the lovely poor girl needs a fairy to make her more splendid and elegant. "The walking street also looks like the beauty sleeping in the woods, who needs a prince to awake her," Ngoc Anh said with a smile.

She explained that the stone-paved street is long, wide, clean and beautiful enough, but lacks benches for sitting, and convenient shops for enjoying street food and souvenirs. "The musical fountain is the walking street's spotlight, but its water shows are still simple. It should create more aesthetic designs, including three-dimensional images, and tell specific stories backed by different melodies, like water shows I have seen in China or India," she said.

Tran Ngoc Anh's praise and complaints about Vietnam's first pedestrian street were echoed by many other spectators.

Being 650 meters long, 64 meters wide, all paved with natural stone, Nguyen Hue walking street stretches from the building of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to Bach Dang Wharf, fronting the Saigon River. With a total investment of some 430 billion Vietnamese dong (19.8 million U.S. dollars), it became Vietnam's first pedestrian street on April 29, one day ahead of the 40th anniversary of the country's national reunification.

The walking street's magnets include the musical fountain and the new monument of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's founding father and revolutionary leader. Last Sunday, more than 2,000 local officials and residents, including the Party's top leader, attended a grand ceremony to inaugurate the 7.2-meter bronze monument, whose investment stood at 7 billion Vietnamese dong (around 322,000 U.S. dollars).

The walking street currently connects with well-known Ben Thanh Market's gastronomy area, Dong Khoi Road's shopping malls and is adjacent to many trade centers in the city's downtown. Standing near the musical fountain, visitors can easily catch the sight of the 262-meter high Bitexco Financial Tower, the third highest building in Vietnam, and dozens of multistoried office buildings featuring the red logo of the Bank of China and the bank's name written in black in both Chinese and English, as well as other firms' designations.

Near the end of the walking street is a 500-square meter basement which consists of rooms used to control water shows and monitor activities above, and modern water-closets tiled with brownish stone.In a 50-square meter room, some local men focus on eight screens with images fed by some 40 white surveillance cameras installed along the street. Along the street is also two lines of green trees with small flower pots placed around foot level.

Young girl Tran Yen Nhi from Binh Tan District said that the trees'shades are not enough so it is very hot to visit the pedestrian street in the daytime, while it is not totally safe to go there at night, adding that the authorities should install more surveillance cameras to detect wrongdoers swiftly. "TV reported that within only three days after the walking street's inauguration, there were three snatch-and-run cases, with victims being both Vietnamese and foreign visitors. Fearing pickpockets and robbers, I always go there in group with my friends or relatives," the gentle girl chuckled, revealing a protruding tooth considered charming by Vietnamese people.

Jon Dillingham, a young American young man, who used to work as an editor for some English-language newspapers in Ho Chi Minh City and as a private English tutor for Vietnamese students, including such famous singers as Ho Ngoc Ha, Van Mai Huong and Pham Anh Khoa, told Xinhua that Vietnam should make Nguyen Hue Street more convenient, and add more walking streets nationwide.

According to Dillingham, most of the shops there are not very interesting; either boring tourist shops or super-expensive " boutique"shops. Most of the people who go to the walking streets are young Vietnamese that have no interest in the stuff or simply cannot afford it even if they are interested. "Other countries' walking streets have lots of things to buy, stalls, kiosks and hawkers. Ho Chi Minh City's does not.. It would be nice to be able to buy some cheap local treats there like "banh ran"(glutinous rice doughnut) or "nuoc ep" (fruit juice) or something like that. Maybe a few places to sit and relax too would be nice too," said the eloquent man.

Suggestions of visitors like Jon Dillingham and Tran Yen Nhi may well be materialized soon.

Ho Chi Minh City plans to place 160 wooden benches along the walking street, with the first ones slated for installation early next month. The benches will be made from logs from the old trees in front of the Municipal Theater, which were chopped down to make way for the construction of a subway system, local newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) reported.

Besides many surveillance cameras installed along the street, more undercover police in plain clothes will be on patrol to better detect and detain those who steal or rob visitors, senior lieutenant colonel Nguyen Si Quang from Ho Chi Minh City Police said at a press briefing early this month.

A reader of Vietnamese the online newspaper VnExpress recently shared a relevant story. "On the evening of April 29, my phone was snatched when I walked around the street's corner near Bitexco Financial Tower. Right after I screamed for help, a street vendor detained the robber until a night-watchmen arrived. Now, thinking again, the young shoeshiner must've been a secret policeman," the reader wrote.

At present, a free-of-charge Wi-Fi system is being installed on the walking street, available 24-hours a day. The free high-speed Wi-Fi access will cover the entire street with a connection speed of up to 1Gbps,ocal telecoms firm VNPT Ho Chi Minh City, announced.

The municipal authorities plan to build a small bridge over the Saigon River to expand the open space for pedestrians to Thu Thien Urban Area which is expected to become Ho Chi Minh City's new economic and financial center, similar to the Pudong district in Shanghai. Following completion, many people working in the new center will cycle or walk to their offices.

Vietnam's first walking street is beautiful and comfortable, great to walk and talk on and maybe even to sit and relax for a while, thus the country should encourage such infrastructures as much as possible, Dillingham concluded. "There is too much traffic and pollution. Having dedicated spaces to walk more could help change that," he said. Endi