23 relic sites added to Dien Bien Phu Battlefield Relics Complex

January 27, 2016 2 views

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(Cinet)- Twenty-three relic sites have been added to the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield Relics Complex in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien, which increases a total number of constituent sites in the complex to 45.

In 1961, Dien Bien became one of the 62 tourist attractions in the north recognized as a national relic site by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It was further recognized as a special national relic site under a decision signed by the Prime Minister in 2009.

The addition lays a basis for the provincial authority to set up investment projects to preserve, embellish, and promote the value of the complex.

Dien Bien Phu is a provincial city of Dien Bien province in Vietnam’s northwest. The city lies in Muong Thanh valley with approximately 20 km in length and 6 km in width. This is why it is also known as “Dien Bien basin”. Dien Bien Phu is regarded as a big bordering city because it is only 35 km far from Lao border-gate.

Dien Bien is home to 18 historical, cultural and tourism relic sites, including one special national relic site, 11 national relic sites and six local-level ones. Four sites considered intangible culture heritages of the province have been listed among the national intangible culture heritages.

Dien Bien Phu Battlefield was witness to Vietnam’s historical victory over France 62 years ago, which sent shockwaves reverberating around the world and helped end the nation’s nine-year war of resistance against the French colonialists.The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the penultimate engagement of the Indochina War in which Vietnam, and ultimately Laos and Cambodia, gained their independence from the Frence. One of the largest post-colonial battles anywhere in the world, it ranks with the Battle of Vertieres in Haiti in terms of a disastrous loss of a former colony for France. Military historians consider Dien Bien Phu to be the first time in history that a guerrilla fight successfully escalated into a conventional war in which a non-European force defeated a modern European army.

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