One morning in late 2025, at Chieu Cafe on Dang Thai Than Street, behind the Hue Imperial Citadel, young musician Huynh Anh Khang had a conversation with us about music and his love for Hue – the land he feels he “owes a debt to.”

Hue is a land once at the heart of the nation’s political power, culture, and scholarship; yet, today’s Hue is not merely looking back to the past. The city is quietly preparing for a major transformation, aiming to become Asia’s leading smart coastal heritage city by 2045.

On the shady Le Duan street, there is a small handicraft workshop resounding daily with the whir of grinders and the buzz of cutting machines. There, coconut shells once thought to be discarded are adorned with shimmering mother-of-pearl, transformed into souvenirs imbued with the essence of Hue.

With diligent hands and a deep-rooted love for their fields, farmers in the flood-prone commune of Phu Ho have written an inspiring story of rice, earning recognition for the rice brand of Phu Ho.

There are people who work their entire lives quietly, yet their footprints remain deeply imprinted on the lands they have passed through, like an underground stream that silently nourishes an entire forest. Associate Professor Dr. Le Van Thang, Vice President of Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment, former Director of the Institute of Resources and Environment at Hue University, and former Dean of the Faculty of Environment at the University of Sciences, Hue University, is one such person.

No one has captured the Vietnamese sense of living away from one’s homeland better than poet Nguyen Khoa Diem when he wrote: “They carry the names of their communes and villages on every migration journey.” In the highland city on the Lang Biang Plateau, this sentiment holds true as well. Many people from Hue left their ancestral land to settle here nearly a century ago. Though four or five generations have now been born on this new land, the “Hue spirit” in these distant Hue communities has never faded.

The first Binh Dien Commune Tet Fair - 2026 is taking place from February 12 to 13. Beyond boosting trade, the fair is also a culturally rich event, and an opportunity to promote the people and land of Binh Dien to friends and visitors from near and far.

“Thuan Hoa is a local publishing house, but not merely a local one, as Hue is a long-established historical and cultural center of the country and is also the one being internationally recognized. Therefore, from the very beginning, the publishing house has strived to produce works worthy of the historic land of Thuan Hoa,” Dr. Nguyen Duy To, Director of Thuan Hoa Publishing House, quoted the late journalist Hoang Tung, former Secretary of the Party Central Committee, when addressing the functions and development orientation of Thuan Hoa Publishing House at a friendly gathering marking its 45th anniversary (1981-2026), held on the morning of February 10.

On the evening of February 7, at Kim Long Park in front of Kim Long Communal House, Kim Long Ward People’s Committee held the opening ceremony of the program “Kim Long Tet - Where Tradition Shines” 2026. The event is a hallmark community cultural activity that recreates the traditional Tet atmosphere while honoring and promoting the distinctive cultural values of Hue City - the historically rich land along the Huong River.

On the afternoon of January 29, Song Huong Magazine launched the “Song Huong - The convergence festival” literary essay contest - 2026, aiming to spread the image of Hue during its new stage of development and seek out valuable literary works about the land and people of the Ancient Capital.

The Ban Gioc Waterfall is considered a place with majestic landscape, like a fairyland, on the Quay Son River (Dam Thuy Commune, Trung Khanh District, Cao Bang Province).

In recent several months, a great number of flocks of storks have been flying to perch upon the branches of trees by a lake in Thuy Bieu ward, Hue City, creating a picturesque and tranquil scene.