Can Tho City

Can Tho is a city directly under the Central authorities, located in the centre of the Mekong Delta. Being dubbed as “the capital city of the south-western Vietnam” more than one hundred years ago, Can Tho has now become the level-1 city and one of the four provinces and cities of the Mekong River Delta Key Economic Zone–the fourth key economic zone of Vietnam. Can Tho has advantages concerning agriculture and aquatic products, as well as in geographical position that helps the city develop in areas such as urban infrastructure, traffic infrastructure, hi-tech agriculture, agricultural–aquatic products and the seafood processing, tourism and supportive industries.

Natural Resources

Land resource

There are 2 main groups of land in Can Tho City: alluvial soil and alkaline soil.

- Alluvial soil comprises 84% of the area's natural soil, distributed alongside the Ha River and 8–12 km away from the banks. There are 5 types of alluvial soil in this area: riverside fluvisols (comprising 1.9% of the area's soil), gleyic cambic fluvisols (about 58%), cambic fluvisols (about 15.3%), speckled fluvisols (about 4.9%), gley fluvisols (about 4.1%). This rare soil needs to be irrigated and given priority to in planting rice in two to three crops and only a small part of it is used to plant fruit-trees.

- Alkali soil comprises 16% of the areas natural soil' There are 3 types of alkali soil in this area : hollow active alkaline soil (comprising about 2.5% of the area's soil), deep active alkaline soil (about 7.0%) and extra deep active alkaline soil (about 6.4%).

Water resource

- Surface water: Abundant, lying in the intersection area of the water resource and the tide. The water flow in the high flood period is about 12,800 cubic metres per second. There are also other important canal systems bringing water from Ha River to the West Sea and Ca Mau Peninsula (canals of Cai San, Thot Not, O Mon Thò Doi, Rach Soi - Vam Cong, Xa No); canals in parallel with Ha River (axis of Bon Tong - Mot Ngan) and naturally tide-influenced rivers (Cai Rang River and small tide-influenced canals from Tra Noc to Cai Cui). Those irrigational and hydroelectric works built over the past time have just made the seasonal water flow changed, and not the overall water flow in general.

- Underground water: widely distributed. Fresh water is mainly distributed at the water layers of Pleistocene, Pliocene and Miocene Epoches at the depth of 100–300 metres. Some places the water occurs at the depth of only 20–50 metres with rather high quality.

Tourism

Cantho is over its 200 years as the main town, once known as Tay Do and now one city of Vietnam. All of economic, culture activities closely relate to river and canals which like the 'street'. Cantho has simple, poetic beauty with well-off villages under shade of coconut trees.It is wonderful to take a boat trip along the riverbanks on fine weather days. On the east bank of Hau River is Ninh Kieu Wharf, which is well known for its beautiful location. Other interesting places are Bang Lang Stock Sanctuary, Cantho and My Khanh Tourist gardens and Cantho Market.

Transportation

Cantho is 34 km from Vinh Long, 62 km from Long Xuyen, 63 km from Soc Trang, 104 km from Mytho, 116 km from Rach Gia, 117 km from Chau Doc, 169 km from Ho Chi Minh City and 179 km from Camau.

- Road: Cantho has National Highway No.1A, 91, 80 linking to An Giang, Kien Giang provinces.

- Waterway: Cantho has Cai Cui international seaport. The city is the centre of waterway network of Mekong Delta. There are daily hydrofoils between Ho Chi Minh City and Cantho City.

- Airline: There is Tra Noc Airport.

Can Tho Bridge

- The city of Can Tho, Mekong Delta, had his moment of glory on April 24, 2010 when opened the Can Tho bridge. - This bridge, which rises on the Hau River, is the symbol of the progress of Vietnam and a milestone of modern architecture and design, in addition Can Tho bridge is one of the most important in the city of Can Tho tourist attractions.

- The Can Tho bridge stands on the Hau River, the most important river in the Mekong Delta, and its objective is to improve communications between Can Tho and Vinh Long provinces.

- The construction of the bridge in Can Tho region marked a before and after in the economic development of the region.

- Can Tho bridge is a cable-stayed bridge; the structure is based on several pillars and is suspended by cables.

- The total cost of the project was 342 million dollars, the most expensive bridge constructed in Vietnam. The bridge was funded with the help of Japan, which contributed 85% of the cost of the bridge.

University

- Can Tho University is a university in Can Tho, Vietnam. Established in 1966, it is a multidisciplinary university. Can Tho University is an agricultural research center. It has nine faculties and two research institutes.

- On 31 March 1966, Can Tho University was established by the government of the Republic of Vietnam. The original university included four faculties: Sciences, Law and Social Sciences, Letters and Pedagogy. After the Fall of Saigon, the university developed into a comprehensive university for the Mekong Delta region with several faculties added. In 2003, the Faculty of Medicine separated from the rest of the university to form the Can Tho University of Medicine.