HÀ NỘI — Various events highlighting the culture and history of the northern province of Bắc Kạn will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the province’s establishment. 

“The celebration will promote patriotism and deeper understanding of local history and culture. The events aim to encourage local people to boost production and construction for future development,” said Phạm Duy Hưng, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee.

An photo exhibition featuring the establishment and development of the province will kick off today and run until Friday.

A football tournament for young people, a volleyball tournament for middle-aged and old people as well as some cultural activities have been organised to celebrate the anniversary.

The celebration will also include an art performance featuring local culture on Thursday.

On the same day, an exhibition entitled Việt Nam’s Spratlys and Paracel - Historical Evidence will be held.

On display are numerous documents, maps, artefacts and publications by researchers and scholars from Việt Nam and abroad that demonstrate that the island chains have historically belonged to Việt Nam.

Especially, there are documents in Vietnamese, Chinese and French languages dating from the 17th to the 20th century, along with 95 maps published by Việt Nam, several Western countries and China since the 16th century. Notably, these maps show that the southernmost border of China is Hainan Island.

The exhibition also includes many photos and documents reflecting the process in which Việt Nam exercised and defended its sovereignty over the Spratlys and Paracel archipelagos since 1930, until China used force to occupy the Paracel on January 19, 1974.

The Information and Communications Ministry has conducted 35 exhibitions with the same theme nationwide since 2013. This time, the ministry will organise the exhibition with Virtual Reality 3D (VR3D) technology. Each visitor will have a virtual guide with headphones.

The exhibition will run until January 2. — VNS