Tourists to take Ho Chi Minh trail

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.

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.