Đông Hà () is the capital of
Quảng Trị Province,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. Đông Hà is situated at the crossroads of
National Highway 1A
National Highway 1A (NH 1A) was a National Highway in North India that connected the Kashmir valley to Jammu and the rest of India. The northern terminal was in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir and the southern terminal was in Jalandhar. Stretches of ...
and
Route 9, part of the
East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC). It lies on the
North–South Railway (Reunification Express) and is served by
Đông Hà Railway Station. EWEC is an economic development program which includes northeast Thailand, Southern Laos, and central Vietnam.
History
The city was initially part of
Champa, until it was conquered by the
Qin Empire
The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), the ...
who were in control of most of Vietnam at the time. In the 2nd century CE, the
Cham people
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territor ...
rebelled against Chinese rule. During the 14th and 15th century, ethnic Vietnamese gradually replaced the Cham inhabitants.
During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, Đông Hà was the northernmost town in South Vietnam and was the location of a strategically important
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
Đông Hà Combat Base, to support Marine positions along the
Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone
The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was a demilitarized zone established as a dividing line between North and South Vietnam from July 1954 to 1976 as a result of the First Indochina War. During the Vietnam War (1955-1975) it became important as t ...
(DMZ).
[Keith W. Nolan ''The Story of an Armored Cavalry Squadron in Vietnam: 1-1 Cav, 1967-1968'' ... Just north of Đông Hà on April 6 the correspondent, Brummett, and Nguyễn Ngọc Lương, the paper's interpreter, waited for a possible tank battle"] Tourists come to Đông Hà nowadays, especially ex-servicemen from the U.S. and Vietnam, who nearly always include a DMZ tour in their programs. The contemporary Vietnamese singer
Như Quỳnh was born in Đông Hà in 1970.
Climate
Đông Hà has a
tropical monsoon climate
An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Am''). There is a
wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...
due to
the northeast monsoon between August and December, peaking in October with around of rain and frequent
typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
landfalls. The
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...
lasts from January to July, though there is a secondary rainfall peak in May.
See also
*
References
Populated places in Quảng Trị province
Districts of Quảng Trị province
Cities in Vietnam
Provincial capitals in Vietnam
{{QuangTri-geo-stub