FOOD FEST TO PROMOTE SAIGON’S CHINESE CULTURE

A food festival to promote the culinary traditions of the ethnic Chinese community will be organized in HCMC on January 11-12.

The ‘Cho Lon-Food Story’, to be held at Van Lang Park on Hong Bang Street in District 5, will be a joint effort by authorities in District 5, home to the largest Chinese community in the city, ride-hailing firm Grab and tourism consultancy Outbox Consulting.

Gourmets can enjoy typical dishes that define the Cho Lon area such as chicken rice, satay noodle soup, salted steamed chicken, Peking duck, stewed duck noodle soup, shark fin soup, and black sesame sweet soup.

Cho Lon, the largest Chinatown in Vietnam and spread over Districts 5, 6, 10, and 11, has earned a reputation as the home of a 300-year-old food culture that combines staples and specialties from Chinese provinces like Guangdong, Hainan and Chaozhou with Vietnamese influences.

There will be cooking demonstrations, music performances and folk games at the festival, which will offer locals and foreign tourists a rare chance to see how the Chinese community preserves its traditions, especially food-related.

The festival will highlight many Chinatown attractions including the 250-year-old Thien Hau Lady Pagoda  the iconic Binh Tay Market and the 100-year-old Hao Si Phuong Alley.

 HCMC received more than 8.6 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of this year, up 13 percent from a year ago, according to its tourism department. It hopes to get 10 million visitors this year, 10 percent more than last year.

It was among the 100 most visited global destinations in the annual Top City Destinations Ranking released by global business intelligence firm Euromonitor International last month.

For many years the Chinatown area has been favored by foreign tourists due to its rich culture and unique architectural features hidden inside ancient pagodas and temples.

Source: Vnexpress