Vietnam, which has been described as a shoulder pole with a rice basket at each end, stretches in an S-shape from China in the north to the Gulf of Thailand in the south. In the center, near Hue, only 50 kilometers (about 30  miles) separate the Biển Đông ( East Sea – Bien dong)  (known as the South China Sea in the World)  from Laos. Situated in the center of Southeast Asia, closer to the Tropic of Cancer than to the Equator, Vietnam offers everything fromtropical coastal lowlands to temperate zones above 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) in elevation. To put these facts and figures in perspective, consider that most of this geographic diversity is condensed into an area than can be covered in a two-hour flight from Hanoi in the North to HCM City in the South.

Vietnam is a lush, verdant country defined by the color green and by the element of water. Rice paddies in low-lying areas stretch as far as the eye can see; cash crops such as coffee and rubber thrive in the Central Highlands, rice, bananas, sugarcane, and coconuts in the Mekong Delta region. There are also rolling hills covered with thick jungle and jagged mountains rising more than 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) into the sky, the jutting limestone rock formations in the aqua blue waters of the East Sea and over 3,200 kilometers (about 2,000 miles) of coastline with pristine white sand beaches. Seventy-five percent of the country consists of mountains and hills, including spectacular mountain ranges in the northern and central regions, running along the border with Laos and Cambodia.

                              Beautiful and peaceful countryside of Vietnam

   Vietnam has an amazingly varied climate, ranging from very hot in the South to bitterly cold and (on rare occasions) even snowy in the mountains near the Chinese border. Visitors to the North are often surprised by the region’s distinct seasons: an oppressively hot, humid summer followed by a pleasant and, as the locals say, “romantic” autumn with the scent of seasonal flowers in the air, then a cool to cold winter punctuated by damp, penetrating drizzles, and finally a spring that begins warming up shortly after Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.In July, the average temperature in Hanoi is a steamy 28.6°C (83.5°F), in Hue 28.9°C (84°F), and in HCM City 27.6°C (82°F). Humidity can reach 90 percent in the rainy season, from May to October. In the South, the year-round midday heat is mitigated by sudden showers, which have a welcome moderating effect, and by an occasional cool tropical breeze.

                   Halong bay - one of world's nature wonder

   Most of the population is found in the two main cultivated areas, the Red River Delta in the North and the Mekong Delta in the South. Central and northern Vietnam are at greatest risk for seasonal flooding precipitated by the heavy rains and typhoons that develop between July and November.Flooding of the Mekong River is less severe than along the Red River, where, when flood control measures (a system of dikes and levees) fail, the results can be catastrophic.

                                Mekong Delta - Vietnam's Southern

The change in seasons and its impact on the environment and the people is obvious when seen from the air—villages like islands, with rivers and their tributaries spreading out over the countryside in all directions. It is one of the forces of nature that the Vietnamese have lived with and attempted to control for millennia.

Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon ) Today