A visitor takes a photo with a statue of a tiger made of glass and green moss at the Nguyễn Huệ Flower Street. VNA/VNS Photo by Hoàng Anh Tuấn

HCM CITY  HCM City’s most popular attractions during the Tết (Lunar New Year) festival welcomed thousands of visitors during the nine-day holiday.

Nguyễn Huệ Flower Street attracted around 350,000 visitors from January 29 to February 6, a year-on-year increase of 440 per cent compared to last year’s event.

The 600-metre flower street, with the theme “Xuân Quê Hương - Thắm Tình Nhân Ái" (Homeland Spring – Full of Love), extended from the statue of President Hồ Chí Minh in front of the People’s Committee building to Tôn Đức Thắng Street.

Visitors especially loved the wide variety of colourful flowers and tiger models and statues made of various materials like glass, plastic and wood to symbolise the Year of the Tiger.

Around 80 kinds of flowers and plants, including chrysanthemums, roses, orchids, azaleas, lotuses and cacti, were used in the flower arrangements.

This year’s flower street received praise from visitors for ensuring pandemic preventive measures during the nine-day opening.

Besides Nguyễn Huệ Flower Street, the Tết Book Fair, another attraction during the Lunar New Year fastival, saw 350,000 visitors.

The HCM City’s annual Tết Book Fair showcases 100,000 copies of books and audiobooks on different topics. VNA/VNS Photo by Hồng Giang

This year’s event, on Mạc Thị Bưởi, Nguyễn Huệ and Ngô Đức Kế streets, showcased 100,000 copies of books and audiobooks about literature, economy, science, technology, particularly medical knowledge and care, and the country’s history and culture.

It also included several exhibitions displaying photos, articles and paintings on the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic of the city during the fourth wave of infections.

More than 100 special publications from the city’s major newspapers and magazines including Trẻ (Youth), Thanh Niên (Young People) and Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) were on display at the fair as well.

This year, the nine-day book fair sold more than 35,000 copies of books, earning more than VNĐ3.6 billion (US$159,500).

The HCM City Book Pedestrian Street on Nguyễn Văn Bình Street in District 1 welcome 60,000 visitors during the holiday, and had a revenue of VNĐ1.5 billion ($66,500)

The city’s annual biggest flower fair, the Tao Đàn Spring Flower Festival, welcomed more than 300,000 visitors this year.

The fair displayed more than 1,000 indigenous and foreign flowers, ornamental fish, bonsai plants and trees. It was open from January 27 to February 6 at Tao Đàn Park on Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai Street in District 1. – VNS