Page+6+Vietnam

=Vietnamese Art=

Several Vietnamese Paintings
This lovely peice was painted by a Vietnamese-American man Roy Harrison [|www.royharrison.com]

Painted by Hoa-Lan Tran [|**www.hoalantrangallery.com/ hlt.html**]

Painted by Vu Bich Thuy **[|www.suffusiveart.com]**

Vietnamese artists often take advantage of their country's beautiful scenery by painting landscapes. They use mostly contemporary colors. Painting on silk is also popular.
=Sports=

__Popular Sports in Vietnam:__
Wushu [|www.wushu.gr/ images] Elephant Racing [|www.vietnamartgallery.com] Canoeing [|www.ece.nus.edu].
 * Wrestling
 * Canoeing
 * Swimming
 * Horse and Elephant Racing
 * Soccer
 * Tennis
 * Wushu (martial arts)

In the integration process to the world community, some sports that were previously unpopular with the Vietnamese are now in booming development. Among those, tennis, horse race and golf are listed. Before 1975, there were quite a few tennis courts in the country?s major cities like //Ha Noi// and //Sai Gon//; today, each city boasts hundreds of tennis courts. Remote provinces like //Lang Son, Quangr Ninh, Dong Thap// have built their tennis courses, while players from small provinces, such as //Soc trang// or //Khanh Hoa//, are fairly strong in the national tennis championships. Visitors can watch horse races at //Phu Tho// race field, Ho Chi Minh City thanks to the restoration of the arena with complicated service required for this sport. You can also play golf in Vietnam since nearly a dozen of golf courses have been built or under construction. The Da Lat Golf Course has been received A+ rank by the International Golf Association and the Vietnam Open Golf Championship has been officially put in the annual list of international competitions. Although Vietnamese national players have recorded more and more achievements at international and regional events like the Seagames, Asiad, or Olympic Games, the Vietnamese level of sports generally still lags far behind other countries in the region. The immediate difficulties have been identified: poor infrastructure and technical conditions for sporting activities and training work; lack of managing officers and trainers and the weakness of training quality; poorer physical conditions and limited tactics of Vietnamese players, though having great determination, in international competitions. From http://www.vietnamembassy-usa.org/learn_about_vietnam/culture/sports/

Page 7 Vietnam