Barun Roy: China Beach, 2008

ASIA FILE

Seeing its magical transformation, you'd never guess how badly the area suffered during the Vietnam war.

The quiet night was shattered by the first of a dozen 122 mm rockets to arc toward Danang Air Base. Mortars began krumping across the flightline, sounding much like a heavy oak door slamming shut. Launched from between Marble Mountain and Danang, the mortars and rockets began thumping in the outer perimeter and pockmarked the fields between the taxiway and only active runway. Krump ... krump ... krump-krump. No exploding aircraft. Krump. No fires. Krump-krump. No penetration of the perimeter. Just another round of near nightly mortars at Danang and Marble Mountain."

That was 1966, as recalled by a Vietnam veteran.

Forward to 2008. In March, on the banks of the Han, one of Danang's biggest real estate projects, a trade-office-apartment complex called Indochina Riverside Towers, will formally open for business, fully leased. Late last year, the French retailer, Big C, opened a supermarket at the mid-city Vin Trung Plaza, where it has leased four floors. Around June, work will begin on a $180 million, 48-storey hotel-cum-business complex called Viendong Meridian Towers.

The transformation has been magical and as dramatic as that of post-war Vietnam itself. This coastal city used to be a major base of American air power and suffered badly from Agent Orange and other defoliants the Americans poured on the country "" about 20 million gallons in all "" to "uncover" the Vietcong. Today, as Vietnamese and American experts work together to bring the city's dioxin levels under control, Danang exudes a totally different persona "" lively, positive, future-oriented. It's one of the country's hottest foreign investment destinations. All the prime areas in centre city have been taken up and, five years from now, Danang will wear a face that old-timers who knew only its barracks and foxholes and perimeter fences won't recognise anymore.

Foreign experts are going to prepare a master plan for the city's development through 2020. A new passenger terminal is being built at Danang International Airport, its first major expansion in over 30 years. The city's drainage system has been thoroughly revamped. Bridges have been built across the Han and other smaller rivers and more are planned. At least 90 new residential areas have been developed within a very short time. A new urban area is planned, along with a general trade service zone and an international fair centre, to include a high-tech park, villa complexes, ecological spaces, and healthcare and educational facilities.

Sitting at the sea-end of an economic corridor that stretches all the way west through Laos and Thailand to Myanmar, Danang is obviously getting ready for its role as central Vietnam's biggest economic hub and an important entrepot and goods and services exchange centre for the greater Mekong sub-region. Tien Sa Seaport is now able to handle ships up to 45,000 DWT. Five new economic zones, covering a total of 1,400 hectares, have been established. Apartments in the city are selling like hotcakes. Land prices along Nguyen Van Linh Road, set to become the financial centre of the central region, have tripled in the past few months.

But it's tourism that's going to redefine Danang and is the focus of a lot of current activity. Drawn by a cluster of nearby World Heritage sites and a string of beautiful beaches filled with wartime memories, Americans are flocking to Danang in increasing numbers. The entire 30-kilometre coastline known earlier as China Beach "" remember the late 1980s American TV serial? "" is still called so by the marketing-savvy Vietnamese who want to exploit the brand value despite its imperialist connotation.

A five-star resort, the Furama, has come up near the old Marble Mountain air facility, and tourists rest, lounge, and sip Hue beer where boat people once gathered to begin their perilous journeys. Olalani, also a complex of resorts and luxury apartments, is coming up nearby. Silver Shores will be a $50 million entertainment complex with a 600-room five-star hotel, an international convention centre, and a 50-villa residential area. Vegas Hotel and Villas is pumping $100 million into a five-star hotel and upmarket residential project called Raffles on Ngu Hanh Son beach, ranked sixth by Forbes among the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. The US-based KOK Corporation has announced a $200 million resort and hotel complex. VinaCapital, a British Virgin Island-based fund management company, has committed $150 million to build a 35-hole golf course, a 260-hectare tourist complex, including 50 hectares of beachfront private villas for sale.

Danang received 774,000 domestic and foreign tourists in 2006. The target is to get 2 million by 2010. What's exciting tourism officials most is a recent surge in sea arrivals, aboard cruise ships. With seven major international cruise operators now offering sailings to Danang, cruise arrivals could snowball soon to make the city one of the hottest sea-tourist destinations in Asia.