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The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee will launch a week-long promotional campaign from November 7-11, to urge people to vote for Ha Long Bay as one of the seven new natural wonders of the world.
The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee will launch a week-long promotional campaign from November 7-11, to urge people to vote for Ha Long Bay as one of the seven new natural wonders of the world.
The event will call upon youth and urge people throughout the country to vote for Ha Long Bay via text messaging or via the websites www.new7wonders.com and http://www.halongbay.com.vn
Local authorities and people of Ha Long City are holding various activities and promotional campaigns throughout the city.
The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Vietnam Journalist Association held a voting ceremony on October 26 to call upon all their staff members to vote for Ha long Bay.
Many universities have called for their students to vote for the bay.
Overseas Vietnamese Associations in many countries like Italy, France, Laos, Cambodia, have also called for members to support Ha Long Bay in the poll of new natural wonders of the world.
Man leads the vote for Ha Long with 11,000 messages
With more than 11,000 messages sent via his mobile phone so far, Huy Hoang, a mechanic in the central city of Da Nang, is taking the lead in the national campaign to vote for Ha Long Bay as one of the new seven wonders of nature.
The campaign is going to end in six days on November 11, when the New7Wonders Foundation will announce the results of the vote.
Though a native of Hai Duong Province, Hoang has nurtured a passionate love for Ha Long Bay since 1996, when he had a chance to see Ha Long on a trip to visit a relative in Quang Ninh Province.
“The picturesque and imposing scenes of the bay have left a strong impression in me. Its ineffable beauty overwhelmed me and has never left me,” he told VTC News.
Recently he was delighted to come across an article urging Vietnamese to take part in a popularity poll to get Ha Long into the list of "New 7 Wonders of Nature" by voting on the website http://www.new7wonders.com, or dialling + 1.869 760.5990 and pressing 7712 to vote for Ha Long, or simply sending a text message (Halong) to 147 at a cost of VND630 (US$0.03).
Too busy to use the Internet, he has used his mobile phone to send as many messages as possible.
Hoang said he had wanted to send 11,111 messages, with a reference to 11:11 am November 11, 2011 for luck, but on November 2, the campaigning board informed him that he had sent 11,190 messages since the campaign kicked off on September 30.
He said he was very excited on September 27 when New7Wonders Foundation chairman Bernard Weber announced that Ha Long was among the 28 finalist candidates for the new seven wonders of nature.
In early November, he intended to use his savings to buy a gift for his daughter on her fifth birthday, November 9, but he later decided to spend the money on voting for Ha Long.
“This is a hard decision for me, but I think I will make up for my daughter by taking her and my wife to Ha Long for a visit in the future,” Hoang said.
“Once there, I will tell my daughter why I had no present for her on her birthday,” he said with a smile.
He told the VTC New reporter, “Please do not photograph me or write much about me. I do not want to get any publicity. If someone knows my story, they may think me abnormal, since I dared to spend VND7 million ($333) on voting messages for Ha Long for about a month while my income is just VND4.5 million per month.”
“My reason is very simple. I am one of the Vietnamese people who loves Ha Long Bay with all my heart.”
SGGP/Tuoitre
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