Ca Mau, Vietnam
Encyclopedia
- This article is about a city. "Ca Mau" also refers to a provinceCa Mau ProvinceCà Mau is a province of Vietnam, named after its capital city. It is located in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, and is the southernmost of Vietnam's 58 provinces...
and to a peninsulaCa Mau Peninsulapeninsula makes up the southern tip of Vietnam. It is in Ca Mau province, and lies between the Gulf of Thailand to the west and the South China Sea to the east....
.
Cà Mau is a city in southern Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. It is the capital of Ca Mau province
Ca Mau Province
Cà Mau is a province of Vietnam, named after its capital city. It is located in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, and is the southernmost of Vietnam's 58 provinces...
, a province in the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
region, in the southernmost part of Vietnam's inland territory. Vietnam's incumbent Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was born and raised here. The city is characterized by its system of transport canals and most goods are transported here by boats and barges.
The city's population is approximately 204,895 (as of 2010). The majority of its residents is ethnic Vietnamese, with 300 Khmer Krom
Khmer Krom
The Khmer Krom are Khmer people living in the Mekong Delta and the Lower Mekong River area. Under the Khmer Rouge regime- according to the conservative estimates are that 150,000. Under the rule of Vietnam from 1979-93, Cambodia may have lost 20,000 Khmer Krom...
households and 400 Hoa households. Ca Mau city is accessible by road (360 km south-west of Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
) via National Road 1A or by air (Ca Mau Airport
Ca Mau Airport
Ca Mau Airport is a small airport in Ca Mau Province, the most southern part of Vietnam.The airport is currently served by Vietnam Aviation Service Company with flight to Ho Chi Minh City ....
). Ca Mau is administratively subdivided into 8 urban phuong and 7 rural xa.
Economy
- 2 thermal power plants with total capacity of 1500 MW (equipment to be provided by the German company SiemensSiemensSiemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
) - A fertilizer plant with production capacity at 800,000 metric tonnes of urea/year, and
- A gas pipeline 18 inches in diameter to extend 298 km offshore and with 27 km onshore piping in gas from the PM3 gas field shared with Malaysia. Two billion cubic meters of gas will be piped to feed these plants per year.
The project is to be completed in 2009.
Tourism
U Minh
U Minh is a district of Cà Mau Province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.As of 2003, the district had a population of 91,438. The district covers an area of 764 km². The district capital lies at U Minh....
area with its famous mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
forest and swamp cuisine: fish hot pot
Hot pot
Hot pot , less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table...
s, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Khmer cuisine. Ca Mau also has several 1- to 3-star hotel restaurants.
History
The region of the present Ca Mau province was once a territory of the Kingdom of Funan (in Vietnamese: Vương quốc Phù Nam), which included LaosLaos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Cambodia, and extended east to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and southern Vietnam (Vietnamese: Nam Bộ). This region later became a part of the Chan La Kingdom (in Vietnamese: Chân Lạp) and the Khmer Empire
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
, which included Cambodia, eastern Thailand, and southern Vietnam. In 1757, the land belonging to Ca Mau province (in Khmer language "the black land") was ceded by the Chan Lap king to the Nguyen Lord of Vietnam with an early settlement of Khmer, Chinese and Vietnamese. During the French colonial period, Ca Mau was only a small town. During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the area nearby Ca Mau was a stronghold (in Vietnamese: Chiến khu cách mạng) for the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam also known as the "Viet Cong," a Hanoi-backed guerrilla group fighting the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and the South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
ese government during the Vietnam War. After 1975, Ca Mau was made the administrative seat and the governmental center of Minh Hai province, which included Ca Mau and Bac Lieu province). In 1995, Ca Mau province broke off from Minh Hai province with Ca Mau its capital. In 1999, the prime minister by a decree recognized Ca Mau (in Vietnamese: Thị xã) as a city – Ca Mau city (3rd class urban area as per Vietnamese laws). In 2010, the Prime Minister further upgraded Ca Mau to a 2nd class urban area.