The central city of Da Nang is making every effort to fulfil its target of becoming a harmonious, friendly and peaceful metropolis by 2020.

The city is striving for a civilised society, rich cultural life and a knowledge-based economy.

It has already tasted some success in these goals, with visitors to the city often expressing their satisfaction towards its green, clean and peaceful environment, even though its “master plan” has been implemented for just a decade.

Recently, the Centre for the Development of Community Initiative and Environment partnered with the Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment under the Ministry of Planning and Investment; the United Nations Development Programme in Vietnam; the SGS Group of Switzerland; and SGS Vietnam to organise a fair themed “Green thinking, clean buying.”

Boasting more than 30 booths, the fair aims to promote an environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyle.

Bui Be Tu, who has worked as a drinks vendor in Tran Ke Xuong Street for dozens of years, always throws tea leaves into the pubic dustbin a little far away from her shop which locates in the shade of a big tree, rather than dumping them onto the foot of trees like others.

She explained that tea leaves would make the street dirty and attract termites that eventually kill the trees.

Visitors to Da Nang are often struck by surprise setting foot in Han market, which was established in the early 1920s. It is hard to find another market so clean and ordered in Vietnam, even in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Products are reasonably priced and good-quality and the shopkeepers have very civilised behaviour, attracting visitors who are accustomed to aggressive and hard-selling vendors in other markets.

Da Nang’s Son Tra peninsula is home to Vietnam’s highest Buddha statue, which sits atop Linh Ung pagoda and looks towards the sea. The area’s hills also house the rare brown-legged langur, which lives only in Vietnam and the neighbouring country of Laos.

Many scientists have selected the Son Tra Nature Reserve as the perfect location for research into tropical endemic faunas and floras.

My Khe beach, which has been voted by the US’s Forbes magazine as one of the six most beautiful beaches on the planet, is always busy as visitors come here in droves to enjoy the clean blue water and white sand.

Thanks to the efforts of local authorities and people, Da Nang has gradually become an attractive and desirable city, increasingly becoming the economic hub of the central region.-VNA