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The decision was made Thursday by the city Vice Chairman Duong Anh Duc after the southern metropolis went 14 days without any Covid-19 community transmission.

Under the latest decision, wedding centers, restaurants, movie theaters and other places of recreation would reopen next Monday.

Tourism activities, transportation, catering services, shopping centers, museums, historical relics and libraries are also allowed to reopen, but must ensure a minimum distance of one meter between two people.

Catering establishments are banned from accommodating more than 30 people.

City authorities have also allowed the organization of religious events but gatherings of more than 50 people at a time are banned.

Vietnam’s largest city has shut down all non-essential services since Feb. after recording a series of community transmissions linked to a cluster at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

Of the 36 community transmissions HCMC has recorded in the nation’s latest outbreak that began on Jan. 28, one is linked to Hai Duong Province, Vietnam’s current Covid-19 epicenter, and 35 with the airport.

Health authorities have said the outbreak in the city has been put under control.

Entering the village at this time, through the gate of Ong Hao village, visitors can feel the bustling atmosphere with the sound of carving, drums and laughter. The vitality of the traditional craft village exists in each country lane. The places that can catch the sun, the large yard in front of the house, the wall or the road in the village are packed with logs for making drums or paper masks. On the porch, skilled artisans and craftsmen diligently carve and colour to perfect the final products.

The toys for Mid-Autumn Festival in Ong Hao village are made from natural materials. Bamboo is used to make the star-shaped “ keo quan ” lanterns (a traditional hand-made lantern with vivid rotating paper-cut figures on the cover), while wood and buffalo skin are used to make drums. Meanwhile, scrap paperboard and paper are “enchanted” to become the paper masks. Even the glue used for paper backing is made from cassava starch, making it user-friendly.

Besides the traditional masks, the villagers of Ong Hao village can make more than 20 different types of paper masks, with large and small sizes depending on the preferences of their “little” customers. Visitors to the village want to make their own colorful toys. Without heirloom secrets, guests can participate in the process of making paper masks under the guidance of skilled craftsmen.

The most interesting is the step of paper backing and mask painting or the step of covering the drumhead; while the trickiest step is making unicorn hair. The steps are usually supervised and controlled by experienced artisans.

Hearing the thumping drum sound, holding hand masks that are dried up, or finding fruit in the village’s market, everyone feels that Mid-Autumn Festival is coming very close.

Childhood memories from the Mid-Autumn Festival night come rushing back. That atmosphere explains why Ong Hao village has become an early destination welcoming the Mid-Autumn Festival in the country.

The list was made by British journalist and travel writer Monisha Rajesh based on her book ‘Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure’.

According to the author, starting in Hanoi, the Reunification Express runs the length of the country right down to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, of which the finest segment is the first half of the journey to Da Nang.

Threading deep into the capital city, the train offers voyeuristic views into the backs of houses as families unwind for the night, before emerging into glorious sunshine the following morning, she wrote.

Climbing for miles through the jungle, banana leaves flapping against the windows, the train comes within inches of villagers’ walls and gardens, so close that you can make eye contact and wave.

At the final stretch, the train curls around the clifftops overlooking the sea where a finger of golden sand runs along the edge of the water in Lang Co Bay, before finally pulling into Da Nang Station.

Other train journeys in Asia are also named in the list, including Tokyo to Osaka, Japan, by Tokaido Shinkansen; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to Beijing, China, by the Trans-Mongolian Express; Bangkok to Nam Tok by Thailand’s Death Railway; Xining to Lhasa, China, by Qinghai-Tibet Railway; and Mumbai to Madgaon, India, by the Mondovi Express.

However, the boy later said he was overloaded and tired of online learning.

The same thing happened with her older son.

“It was easier to study online last year, when by sons were in fourth and eighth grades. They prefer online study because they did not have to get up early to go to school. But things are different now,” she said.

“As the kids are in the final grades of primary and secondary levels, they have to do more exercises and feel stressful,” she explained.

As schools have closed amid the new Covid-19 outbreak and organized online classes, Thu has had to buy one more laptop for the younger son. They also need a smartphone, in case of computer troubles.

Thu’s older son plans to take the entrance exam to the high school for the gifted, majoring in foreign languages. He has three learning periods in the morning and another three in the afternoon. He also has two English, one mathematics and one literature lessons with private tutors a week.

“My son complains that he feels tired and suffers from eyestrain as he has to sit too long in front of computer. However, he has no other choice than studying hard because he will have to take one of the two most important exams in his life this summer,” she said.

Thu hopes that the teachers at school will re-design their lesson plans so students don’t have to look at computer screen intently for too long.

La Mai Huyen, a mother in Hanoi, also is embarrassed as her children have to study online.

“My daughter is in second grade and she could not study online without the parents’ help. I have to leave a laptop at home for my son, a seventh grader, to study online and I am insecure about that. I am afraid that he would use the laptop to access the websites with bad content,” she explained.

Huyen also complained that she has become busier since the children have shifted to study online.

“I have to check notices from teachers sent to my phone regularly and I have to print documents that serve my children’s lessons,” she complained.

“This puts pressure on me. My mother urges me to study harder and harder all the time,“ he said.

Thuy Nga