Current Time in Long Xuyên, Vietnam

Long Xuyen is the principal city of An Giang province in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, standing on the bank of the Hau River, the western branch of the Mekong also known as the Bassac. The land here is almost perfectly flat, a green expanse of rice fields, orchards, fish ponds and canals stretching to the horizon, broken only by isolated granite hills near the Cambodian border. The climate is tropical, with a long rainy season and an annual flood that spreads silt across the fields.

Around three hundred thousand people live in the city. Long Xuyen sits at the centre of the most productive agricultural region in Vietnam, and An Giang is consistently the leading or second-ranked rice-producing province in the country. Rice milling and export, freshwater aquaculture and the processing of pangasius catfish for world markets, fruit growing, trade and river transport underpin the local economy, with a growing tourism sector.

The delta was for centuries part of the Khmer world and, before that, of the ancient kingdom of Funan, whose port city of Oc Eo lay within what is now An Giang province and traded with India, Persia and Rome nearly two thousand years ago. Vietnamese settlement expanded southwards from the seventeenth century, and Long Xuyen developed as a market town on the river. Under French rule it became a provincial centre for the rice trade, gaining a colonial administrative quarter and a cathedral. The city is proud of being the birthplace of Ton Duc Thang, who served as president of Vietnam in the 1970s, and his memorial and childhood home on the island of My Hoa Hung across the water are much visited.

Visitors enjoy the Long Xuyen floating market, one of the more authentic in the delta, where boats laden with pineapples, pumpkins, coconuts and vegetables trade at dawn with far fewer tourists than at larger markets elsewhere. The riverside promenade, the covered market, the cathedral with its tall spire and the museum of An Giang history and Oc Eo archaeology are all worth a visit. Beyond the city lie Sam Mountain and the pilgrimage temples above Chau Doc, the flooded cajuput forest of Tra Su, the Cham Muslim villages along the river and the boats to Cambodia.

An Giang is one of the most religiously varied provinces in Vietnam. It is the birthplace of the Hoa Hao Buddhist movement, has substantial Khmer Krom and Cham Muslim communities, and supports Cao Dai temples, Catholic churches and countless pagodas. The food is famous, with fish noodle soups, sour canh chua, palm sugar sweets and rice paper specialities.

Highways and new bridges have greatly improved connections to Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City, ferries and river boats remain important, and an airport at Can Tho serves the region. An Giang University is the main higher education institution.

Long Xuyen is worth knowing as a working heart of Vietnam's rice bowl and a relaxed introduction to delta life.