Subway train featured at Ho Chi Minh City’s iconic Flower Street

The week-long iconic Flower Street in Ho Chi Minh City this year will feature the metro, a modern transit system the southern Vietnamese metropolis cannot wait to see its completion.

This year’s flower street, themed “Vietnamese Identity and Spirit,” is slated for opening at 7:00 pm today, February 16, and will run for seven days.

Today is the 28th day of the lunar year, meaning the Vietnamese Tet, the country’s largest public holiday, is only three days away.

The Ho Chi Minh City Flower Street has been held annually since 2004 on Nguyen Hue Street, but will be relocated to Ham Nghi this year as the former is closed for the construction of a subway system.

And the metro will be one of the key decorations of the flower street, whereas most of others feature goat-related images as the next lunar year is the Year of the Goat.

Some

120,000 pots of flowers of varied species are installed in the street, stretching 510 meters from Pho Duc Chinh Street near the landmark Ben Thanh Market to Ho Tung Mau Street.

The flowers have been gathered from several places across the country, including Sa Dec City in the southern province of Dong Thap, Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, and some plant companies in Ho Chi Minh City.

The flower street has grown into one of the city’s highlights during Tet – the Southeast Asian country’s largest traditional holiday – and receives millions of tourists, including foreigners, each year.

Tet, which is the Vietnamese term for the Lunar New Year, kicks off on February 19 this year.

The Ho Chi Minh City’s metro system, the first of its kind in Vietnam, has a total length of 19.7km, including 2.6km underground. The subway will run through 14 stations, with three underground ones, and connect Ben Thanh Market and Suoi Tien in Thu Duc District.

The megaproject requires a total investment of US$2.49 billion, with $2.2 billion from Japanese assistance loan whereas the city’s administration covers for the remaining $290 million.

Construction of the first underground terminal of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line in Ho Chi Minh City began in July last year.

The metro line is scheduled to be completed in 2017 and put into operation in 2018, when it can transport about 620,000 passengers per day, the HCMC Transport Department said.

Below are some photos taken at the flower street by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.