The most beautiful cemetery-park in Vietnam will be built on 98 hectares in the northern province of Hoa Binh at a cost of 1.5 trillion dong ($83.3 million).

The cemetery will locate on the National Highway No.6, over 50km from Hanoi’s centre. Around 70 percent of the area will be devoted to trees and supporting works and 30 percent for tombs. The cemetery will be surrounded by hills, trees, grass and streams.

The investor, the Toan Cau Tren Company, said that a nine-storey tower will be built on the highest hill in this area. On the top of the tower will be a gold-inlaid Buddha statue. This tower is both a pagoda and the place to keep ash. Annual requiem for the deaths will be held at the tower. The cemetery will also have a vegetarian restaurant.

Tran Tuan Anh, business manager of the Lac Hong Vien cemetery project, some parts of the cemetery are being completed to open before the lunar New Year 2010. The areas for tombs of 9sq.m, 15, 30, 45 to 200sq.m are sold at the cheapest price of 30 million dong/lot.

Nguyen Quang Hai, chief of the Hoa Binh People’s Committee Office, said that the local authorities warmly support this project because the entire work is located on hills and it doesn’t affect local people.

According to Hai, this will be the largest cemetery-park in Vietnam.

The Hanoi authorities recently announced that the Van Dien cemetery, the capital’s largest cemetery will be closed. The land for burying in Hanoi nearly runs out. Two new cemeteries of Hanoi, Yen Ky and Thanh Tuoc can receive dead people in 5 and 2 years more, respectively.

PV