Việt Nam - The country and its geographical regions

On the world map, Việt Nam resembles the Latin letter "S" in shape with its northwestern side buttressed by the vast Asian Continent and southeastern side looking towards the Pacific Ocean.

With over 331,700 km2 of area Việt Nam is not a large country. Edged by a 3,000 km long coastline, it is entirely situated in the Northern hemisphere's zone of a tropic climate and monsoon. Although endowed by nature with great potential, it has also endured numerous natural calamities often unrivalled in terms of destruction force.

Viet Nam's population is now more than 90 million people. They represent fifty four ethnic groups whose contributions to the culture of Việt Nam have made it both unique and diverse.

During their long-standing process of evolution the Vietnamese nation have been faced with twenty aggressive wars and an over 1,000 years' domination by foreign feudals and imperialists. Thus their millenniums-year history is marked with their consecutive struggles against natural Esasters and foreign invasion for national construction.