The Nguyen Hue Flower Street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, created annually to celebrate the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, was teeming with visitors during the opening night on Saturday.

The 19th flower street, with the theme 'Xuan Que Huong, Am Tinh Nhan Ai' (Homeland Spring, Full of Love), marks an unforgettable period in the southern hub, which is steadily recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 600-meter-long flower street features over 80 different species of flora in approximately 97,000 pots and baskets, as well as a rural landscape of Vietnam with rice paddy fields, vegetable gardens, and tiger statues representing the year's zodiac animal.

This year, in particular, is the first time that gravel has been utilized as a decorating material.

The pebbles are meticulously selected in terms of size, shape, and color before being wrapped around the steel and porous construction in accordance with the feng shui characteristics of the tiger figure.

Apart from the flower street, the 2022 Lunar New Year's book street festival began last night in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, on Nguyen Hue, Ngo Duc Ke, Mac Thi Buoi, and Nguyen Van Binh Streets.

Approximately 5,000 bookcases are presented with a wide range of genres and topics to fulfill the demands of readers.

Additionally, there are miniature amusement parks, a calligraphy street, and exhibitions of paintings, photographs, documents, and publications focused on Ho Chi Minh City and the fight against COVID-19 last year.

As with the flower street, the book street is open to the public from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm from January 29 to February 4 or from the 27th day of the final lunar month to the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

Visitors will be required to file health declarations via the PC-COVID app on their smartphones, have their body temperature measured, and sanitize their hands before entering the flower street, according to the organizing board.

They must also wear face masks, even when posing for photos.

Those who wish to visit the flower street but have forgotten to bring face masks will be provided with the coverings by the organizers. 

Thanh Loan, a resident of Hoc Moc District, said that she believes this year's tiger statues are more eye-catching than prior years.

"People arrive at the flower street in a large number on the opening night, which puts me in a Tet festive mood," Loan said.

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