Early in the morning, in a three-bay house filled with sea air in Phuong Loc Village (Phu Vinh Commune), 73-year-old Tran Van Than, surrounded by bamboo baskets, miniature boats, and coracles, was moving his hands skillfully with thin bamboo strips. Having spent decades making a living from the sea, though his health no longer allows him to work at sea, his deep affection for his hometown’s sea lives on through every product he makes.

The final match of the 2026 National Hometown Football Tournament took place on the afternoon of August 23 at the PM Sport artificial turf field in Ho Chi Minh City. Despite making their debut in the tournament, Hue Hometown FC advanced all the way to the final, with their journey carrying significant meaning along the way.

On the morning of August 18, at the Memorial House of President Ho Chi Minh’s childhood in Duong No Village (Duong No Ward), Hue City Youth and Children’s Center, in coordination with Ho Chi Minh Museum of Hue City, organized the 2026 history-learning journey ‘Following Uncle Ho’s Footsteps - Pride in Our Homeland’s Traditions’.

On the afternoon of August 9th, at Lieu Quan Hue Buddhist Cultural Centre, Hue Union of Literature and Arts Associations, in collaboration with Lieu Quan Hue Buddhist Cultural Centre and the family of Nguyen Phan, a late painter, opened the exhibition ‘Nguyen Phan: Echoes of Returning Home’.

On the afternoon of June 23, the Phu Xuan Ward Women's Union organized a cooking competition themed “Flavours of home - Connecting through love”, attracting more than 130 participants. The event was held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vietnamese Family Day (June 28, 2001 - June 28, 2026).

With over 120 kilometers of coastline and a vast lagoon system bestowed by nature, Hue is home to numerous attractive seafood markets, including Phu Hau Market and Ngu My Thanh Floating Market, and Vinh Hien Market… In this issue of Hue Today Weekly, we would like to take readers to the fish market of Thuan An through a series of photos taken by Duc Quang, a reporter, offering a glimpse into the vibrant daily life of a coastal fishing community.

More than 142 visually impaired women have received vocational training, and over 68,000 gift packages have been distributed; these were among the notable achievements highlighted at the conference reviewing 10 years of implementing the coordinated support program for visually impaired women (2016 - 2026 period), and the five-year review of the Compassionate Homes program, held on the morning of June 2 at the City Association of the Blind.

While many primary school children in Vietnam are often occupied with their homework, extra classes, or exam preparation after school, children in many states across the United States, even those as young as 5, have opportunities to engage in business activities, financial management, and community fundraising beyond the classroom. Skills that are often considered “to be learned later in life” are introduced at an early age and have become an important part of liberal education in the United States.

Ask the people of Hue what flower they love most, and most will likely answer: the apricot blossom. To put it more formally, “hoang mai” - yellow apricot, without a doubt. Don’t believe it? Come to Hue and see for yourself! There’s a whole movement called “Yellow apricot blossom in front of the entrance”; a completed research project on “Conservation and development of Hue’s yellow apricot variety (Hue’s Hoang mai)”; a scientific conference on developing Hue’s Hoang mai into a key local product, aimed at successfully realizing the project to build Thua Thien Hue province (now Hue City) into Vietnam’s yellow apricot homeland. My friend, journalist Minh Tu, even published a book called “In front of the house stands a yellow apricot tree”, which sold out instantly, was reprinted, and translated into foreign languages to great acclaim.

On the afternoon of February 19, at Keiser University (28 Nguyen Tri Phuong), a non-profit community event themed “Spring Awakening of Dreams: The Journey of Hue people to the World's Top 1% Universities” took place in a warm and inspiring atmosphere. The program gathered notable figures from Hue, who conquered the world's top prestigious universities, returning to engage in direct dialogue with the younger generation in their hometown.