A SMALL TRIP OF A VIETNAMESE TOURIST TO CHINA
It's no secret that many domestic Vietnamese tourists would like to visit China. The interweaving of cultures and historical destinies of the peoples of these two countries is so great that this desire does not weaken over the years, but on the contrary increases with the study of history and culture. Much is said about the similarity of the two peoples, and French scientists of the colonial period even believed that the power structures, legal and moral norms, writing and other elements of civilization appeared among the Vietnamese solely due to their neighbors from the north-the Han. Today, when both countries - China and Vietnam-are making the transition from a command-and-control system to a market economy, many authors argue that Vietnam repeats the Chinese experience on this path.
Vietnam-China relations have never been easy: Vietnam historians estimate that the Vietnamese have repelled aggression from the north at least 10 times in the last 22 centuries. And how many intrigues, hidden grudges and behind-the-scenes maneuvers remained little known to the general public?! And even today, the issues of border demarcation between the two states cannot be called completely resolved.
My senior colleagues, who took up the path of Vietnamese studies in the mid-1950s, could easily see China. At that time, most Soviet people came to Vietnam by rail, crossing the entire territory of China from north to south. I was unlucky in this regard - my student years were spent during the American aggression against Vietnam, and my first career began during the confrontation between Vietnam and China, which, as you know, led to the border war of 1979. In those years, as today, most of our compatriots traveled to Vietnam by plane, bypassing China.
My first attempt to cross the Vietnam-China border ended in virtually nothing - at that time it was far from good neighborliness, although the checkpoint called " Friendship Gate "was already f ...
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