Tourists to take Ho Chi Minh trail

The network was heavily bombed by American forces

The key supply route used by Viet Cong guerrillas as they battled the US-backed South Vietnamese forces is to be opened as a visitor attraction.

The Ho Chi Minh trail was a frequent target for American bombing during the Vietnam War but its network of paths, tunnels and canals was never fully destroyed.

The 16,000-kilometre network grew from one mountain pass

Now tourist authorities in the province of Quang Tri have unveiled a $3.5m plan to restore a 41-kilometre (26-mile) section of the supply route which sustained the North's fighters as they headed south.

The project will also involve building replicas of first-aid stations used by North Vietnamese forces and setting up battlefield tours.

Quang Tri province witnessed some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, including the 75-day siege of the US military base at Khe Sanh in 1968 in which some 10,000 North Vietnamese troops died.

Origins

The Ho Chi Minh trail - named after Vietnam's independence hero - began in 1959 as a footpath over the Truong Son mountain.

As the war escalated, the path became into a network of trails, canals and tunnels which in total exceeded 16,000 kilometres.

The Vietnamese Government has also started construction of a 1,690-kilometre highway along the trail, at an estimated cost of $350m.

The highway as well as the Ho Chi Minh trail project should be completed by 2005 - the 30th anniversary of the end of the war.