Around 160 overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) teenagers and youths from all over the world who are attending the 2012 Summer Camp set foot in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday – six days before the 19-day camp ends in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

The camp is generally a trans-Viet trip organized from July 11 – 30 to create a chance for attendants to visit historic monuments and sites along their way from the North to the South.

They visited President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum in Hanoi; participated in a ceremony to commemorate martyrs and heroes in Thai Binh; held flower offering rites at the Ho Chi Minh Statue in Nghe An, the Dong Loc T crossroads monument, and temples of King Quang Trung and Heroine Vo Thi Sau. The camp members also had meetings and exchanges with local youths in central Hue and the central highland city of Da Lat.

They also visited many famous tourist sites of their native nation, including the relics of the presidency palace in Hanoi, Bai Dinh Pagoda in northern Ninh Binh Province, Pren Waterfall in Da Lat, and Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City.

In the coming days, they will visit the island district Con Dao – 97 nautical miles from Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The closing ceremony of the camp will be held in Ba Ria-Vung Tau before the participants return to Ho Chi Minh City to bid farewell.

Entitled “Visiting the Red Soil”, the this year’s event is held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death of Heroine Vo Thi Sau and the 65th anniversary of Martyrs and Wounded Soldiers’ Day, on July 27.

The summer camp has been annually organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Committee for Vietnamese Overseas since 2003 to help Viet Kieu learn their history and language and unite with local people for the development of the nation.

Followings are some images of the camp in the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City:

Members of the 2012 Vietnam Summer Camp are listening to instructions from a guide of the Reunification Palace in HCMC

Reading maps in the Commanding Room in the Palace

Four girls posture in the corridor outside the Hall to receive foreign visitors in the Palace

On the fourth floor of the Palace

Both smile as seeing the camera

A girl gestures in front of her teammates

In the front yard of the Palace

Coming from different nations, they join together in the 19-day camp to end on July 30

Performing in front of tanks

Getting tired? You have five more days ahead

Source: Minh Phat