The roads from Hanoi are still very bad. If everything goes smoothly, we will have a good road to Hanoi next year. The trip will take less than three hours. Many foreign investors say tourism development will be much better then, that they would be more active. With the country hungry for foreign currency, the project has been given priority.
Construction work is under way at several sites along the route.
Despite the accessibility problems, tourism has been booming. Chien says the number of foreign visitors has grown an average of 43 percent per year, jumping from 12,000 in 1990 to 151,000 last year. Although they come from more than 55 countries, most tourists are from France, China and Taiwan. Less than 5 percent are Americans. The once-quiet town of Halong is waking up to opportunity as more tourist hotels go up and swampy land is filled in to make room for more.