Central Vietnam tower wins Asian townscape award

Nghinh Phong Tower Square in Vietnam’s south-central province of Phu Yen, home to beautiful beaches, was the only representative in Southeast Asia to win the 2023 Asian Townscape Award.

Inaugurated in 2021, the tower square covers nearly 7,200 square meters at the intersection of Nguyen Huu Tho and Doc Lap streets in Tuy Hoa town, the capital city of Phu Yen.

Its design took inspiration from Ghenh Da Dia (The Cliff of Stone Plates), considered a symbol of the locality, and the legend of the “one hundred eggs and one hundred children” of Father Lac Long Quan and Mother Au Co.

It features two tall stone columns, one with a height of 35 meters representing Lac Long Quan and another 30-meter tall representing Au Co. Fifty stone blocks are stacked on top of each other at the bottom of each tower.

Since its inauguration, the venue is used to host many provincial and national cultural and artistic events and has a capacity of some 10,000 people.

The Asian Townscape Awards was initiated by the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in cooperation with Fukuoka Urban Research Centre, Asian Habitat Society and Asia Townscape Design Society, in 2010.

The awards aim to highlight and honor significant efforts by cities, regions, organizations and projects that have achieved excellent results in creating a comfortable living environment for people in Asia.

The winning works and projects are evaluated based on five criteria, including harmonious coexistence with the regional environment; safety, convenience and sustainability; respect for regional culture and history; high artistic quality; contributions to local development and capabilities of becoming models for other cities.

In recent years, Phu Yen has emerged on global tourism map.

While it is lesser-known than Nha Trang about 120 kilometers away to the south, Phu Yen started gaining wide fame after Victor Vu’s award-winning film was released.

The adaptation of Nguyen Nhat Anh's coming of age novel "Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass" won an award at the Toronto Film Festival and premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2015.

Convenient flight connections have also boosted Phu Yen's rising popularity. Currently there are daily flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Tuy Hoa Airport in Phu Yen with round-trip tickets ranging from VND2-4 million ($85-170).

Last month, online travel agency Agoda listed Phu Yen one of eight emerging tourist destinations in Vietnam.