Ho Chi Minh City 's museums have improved their way of doing business and are attracting people's attention away from theatres and cinemas plus a plethora of other modern amusements.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum welcomes more than 800 visitors, including a hundred foreigners, every day.

"Through our museum, visitors can learn more about President Ho Chi Minh, his life and career, particularly about the great contributions he made to the country and people," the museum's director Nguyen Thi Hoa Xinh said.

Visitors can view many documentaries and images to get a more informed experience of the late President.

In recent years, the War Remnants Museum has worked closely with schools and universities to organise tours for students.

The museum's management board wants visitors, particularly youngsters, both Vietnamese and foreign, to be not just educated but entertained.

The museum that opened in 1975 houses documentaries, images, artifacts and objects, most of them very rare – providing the visitors with a deeper knowledge of Vietnam's history and people, focusing on the French and American wars.

Its staff has drawn up special programmes to attract secondary school and university students – who like learning history through tangible objects instead of reading about events and numbers in books.

The museum's entertainment area called Bo Cau Trang (White Dove) displays daily objects used during the Lunar New Year or Tet by different ethnic minority groups. The new section attracts a lot of local and foreign visitors.

Music and song programmes staged by disabled children are also highlights.

The Vietnam History Museum recently added a new section dedicated to the Tay Son popular uprising in the 18th century with more than 400 antiques in porcelain, stone, bronze, iron, wood and paper.

The new display that has 1,000 visitors a day has enriched their understanding of Vietnamese culture, even for cultural and historical researchers.

"My museum's guides are skilled in foreign languages. They are also dynamic, have good communication skills, and understand how to make a presentation," said Xinh, adding her museum is working hard to offer visitors more programmes, themes and goals to provide them more choice./.