The Hanoi Bureau Chief of the German Press Agency DPA said that although he loves Hanoi’s unique beauty, he said the country was not doing “nearly enough to protect and preserve the kinds of living culture heritage that make it so wonderful.”

He said Vietnam had to be careful not to let development push aside its traditions and charms.

“Far too many old buildings are being torn down in Hanoi. Treasures of Vietnamese culture, such as the traveling street vendors selling fruit from shoulder poles, are being banned in the name of "modernization,” he said, adding that he was worried about the future.

“I am afraid that Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will someday look exactly like fifty other cities in Asia, and be completely boring, having lost everything that made them unique and beautiful.”

Hanoi Bureau Chief of Japan’s Kyodo News Shintaro Komiya said he also found Vietnam’s small, and often most vulnerable characteristics the most alluring.

Sometimes, he spends all day driving a motorbike along crowded streets in Hanoi, wandering old streets and meeting people.

Komiya has traveled across most of Vietnam, from Vinh Phuc and Lao Cai in the north, Da Nang in the center and Ho Chi Minh City in the south and understands much about the country’s history.

“Vietnam has rapidly developed since I came to your country for sightseeing for the first time 10 years ago. As for economic power, your country is in the middle of ASEAN,” he said in an interview with Thanh Nien Weekly.

New era

Koyima wants his readers from Japan and the rest of the world to better understand the country, as many of them think of it only as a land of wars. “I like to write about how Vietnam develops in the economic, social and political fields. I’m interested in Vietnamese people nowadays.”

Komiya is not the only foreign reporter in Vietnam impressed by the country’s changes in recent years.

Steinglass seconded the motion.

“I found it interesting to be in a poor country where people were optimistic about the future, where the economy was growing rapidly, and where the government had a genuine, powerful interest in promoting national development,” he said.

According to Steinglass, it’s easier to work as a journalist in Vietnam than in other countries because everyone here knows everyone else. “It is an exceptionally close-knit society where it is quite easy to make connections.”

Komiya said his work becomes easier with the help of local staff who were experienced and proficient in English, as he does not know Vietnamese. He also said the abundance of English-language news in Vietnam was a plus.

Open minds and red tape

However, the reporters also complained about complicated procedures in Vietnam. “It’s difficult for us to contact officials, as there are a lot of procedures,” Komiya said.

Steinglass said the main obstacle to his work is that some people here were extremely reluctant to provide information to foreign journalists, unless they had prior approval from their superiors.

He said one example was when he contacted motorbike companies to propose a story about how they design attractive motorbikes. They should have been eager to cooperate, he said, but it was nearly impossible to get the info he needed as his sources had to always get direct approval from their chief executive officers.

“In foreign countries, certainly in the US or Europe, and I believe in Japan and South Korea as well, public relations officers would be more eager to promote the company's image. For this reason, foreign companies often receive better press coverage than Vietnamese ones,” he said.

The story stands in contrast with the general open-mindedness of ordinary people.

Komiya, who has worked in Vietnam since last August, says official sources aren’t the only ones he consults. He gets to know the country via ordinary people such as taxi drivers who take him from his apartment to his office every morning. “Vietnamese people are very creative, and active,” he said.

Reported by Bao Anh