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HANOI - VIETNAM'S capital on Sunday kicked off celebrations leading up to its 1,000th birthday in 2010, when Hanoi hopes to have its historic heart recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Traditional artistic shows, parades and a photo exhibition rang in festivities before Hanoi was set to start a 1,000-day countdown at midnight on a large digital clock placed next to its landmark Hoan Kiem Lake.
Bells in the city's Buddhist pagodas and Christian churches were due to ring at the stroke of midnight (1am Monday Singapore time) to mark the event across the northern city on the Red River, authorities said.
Students volunteers were sweeping streets and citizens were urged to do their part on a banner that read: '1,000 days for a green, clean and beautiful capital, toward the 1,000 year celebration of Thang Long-Hanoi'.
Hanoi was chosen as the capital of the Dai Viet kingdom, now Vietnam, in the autumn of 1010 by founding king Ly Thai To, who named the city Thang Long, or Ascending Dragon, marking the end of a millennium of Chinese rule.
The exact date chosen for Hanoi's official 1,000-year birthday in 2010 is Oct 10, the day revolutionary troops under Ho Chi Minh liberated Hanoi in 1954, ending French colonial rule in the Southeast Asian country.
Central Hanoi today - despite urban pressures and worsening traffic - has retained much of its charm, with old houses and temples overlooking tranquil lakes and crumbling French colonial villas lining leafy boulevards.
Heritage expert William Logan has written that Hanoi has been recognised as 'one of the great heritage townscapes of Asia', with elements of its Chinese and Vietnamese feudal past, the French era and Eastern bloc influences.
Communist Vietnam in 2006 made a submission to have Hanoi's central historical complex listed as a World Heritage site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and a decision is expected by 2010. -- AFP
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