VietNamNet Bridge – This sun dial in the southern province of Bac Lieu is still impressing visitors who are amazed by its accuracy.

The Thai Duong stone clock in Bac Lieu province.

In Vietnam Bac Lieu is famous for its songs and legends not many visitors know of its sun dial. The Thai Duong stone clock, the only one of its kind in Vietnam. It is the work of engineer Luu Van Lang and was created in the early 19^th century.

The stone clock is 1m high and 0.8m wide and located in the back yard of the Bac Lieu Continuation Education Centre at 83 Hai Ba Trung Street.

Visitors tell the time via the shadow cast on the face of the stone clock withhe line between the lightness and the darkness being the hour hand. However, of course, it only works on a sunny day.

The clock is located at a site that used to be use by an office of local officials. They considered it as the standard to adjust their western clocks in line with.

Now it stands as a monument to the talent of a long-dead Vietnamese engineer.

Engineer Luu Van Lang was born in 1880 and died in 1969 in Sa Dec, now known as Dong Thap province.

He earned a scholarship to study in France at the age of 17. He graduated as an outstanding engineer in France in 1904 and was among the top students of his school. Returning home, he was sent to Yunnan, China to join the project to build a railway linking China and Indochina.

VietNamNet/Dan Tri