An exhibition opened in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday to highlight three designs selected from a contest for a memorial park for 64 heroic combatants who perished in the 1988 battle to protect Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago in the East Sea.

>> Vietnam launches program to honor fallen Hoang Sa-Truong Sa soldiers

The designs, which are on display at the Labor Cultural House in District 1, were chosen from the entries of the “The Memorial Park for the Fallen Combatants on Gac Ma Island – Truong Sa” contest organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL), the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Architects, and the Ho Chi Minh City Federation of Labor.    

The contest was meant to find the best design for a memorial park dedicated to those Vietnamese soldiers who died on Gac Ma Island, part of Truong Sa, 26 years ago.    The three selected designs include “Hành trình khát vọng” (Journey of Aspiration), “Giọt nước mắt thiên thu” (Tears of Eternity), and “Những người nằm lại phía chân trời” (Those Falling on the Horizon).  The exhibition, which will last until December 31, is aimed at collecting feedback from the public to help the contest’s jury select the best design for the memorial park. All visitors are asked to write down their comments on the designs and their priority on a vote and then put the vote into a cardboard box placed at the event. The memorial park is planned for construction in a tourist center on Nguyen Tat Thanh Street on Cam Ranh peninsula, located in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa. Truong Sa is a district under the administration of Khanh Hoa. “This is a work to pay tribute to 64 naval soldiers who bravely fought and perished to protect the fatherland’s sacred sovereignty in a battle on Mach 14, 1988 on Gac Ma that belongs to the Truong Sa archipelago,” said Nguyen Van Dong, head of the VGCL’s Propaganda and Education Commission. Dong was referring to the heroic sacrifice of these combatants who fought against Chinese forces on the island that day.  

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