Fruit
lovers flock to HCM City festival
(30-05-2005)
 |
| Sweet and juicy:
A view of the South Fruit Festival 2005 in HCM City. — VNS Photo Thanh
Vu |
Visitors have begun
flocking to HCM City for an exhibition of fruits from Viet Nam and neighbouring
contries which began last Saturday.
The annual South Fruit
Festival 2005 opened unofficially in the city’s Suoi Tien Park with a display
of 45 kinds of fruits including thanh long (dragon fruit), mang cut
(mangosteen), buoi (grapefruit), sau rieng (durian), nhan
(longan) and vai (litchi), all Vietnamese specialities.
The official opening is
slated for June 1.
Offering a meeting place
for orchard farmers, traders and visitors, the festival will see trucks
festooned with fruits representing different areas.
Visitors can see people
garbed in ‘fruit’ and a fruit-eating contest.
The festival will host
seminars and introduce varieties of traditional foods and drinks made from
fruits – like coffee, tea, cakes and cocktails.
Over 40 kinds of fruits
are expected to be sold here at cheap rates.
The festival is organised
every year by the HCM City Tourist Department and Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta
provinces to promote Vietnamese fruits and tourism, and attracts participation
from neighbouring countries.
This year, the festival
expects to shatter the records for the number of visitors and fruit consumption.
Fruit Festival 2005 will
run until June 11. — VNS