Map of Vietnam

Map of Vietnam

Officially Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Vietnamese Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam, country occupying the eastern part of the Indo-chinese Peninsula. The Map of Viet Nam has an area of 127,800 square miles (331,000 square kilometres). From north to south it extends about 1,025 miles (1,650 kilometres) and at its narrowest part is about 30 miles wide. Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, the South China Sea to the east and south, the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and Cambodia and Laos to the west.

The capital, Hanoi, is located in the north, while the country's largest city, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Siagon), is in the south.

The current Vietnamese nation was established in July 1976, after a period of prolonged warfare and after being partitioned (1954–75) first militarily and later politically into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, better known as North Vietnam, and the Republic of Vietnam, usually called South Vietnam.

The People

Vietnam has one of the most complex ethnolinguistic patterns in Asia.

The Vietnamese were significantly Sinicized during a millennium of Chinese rule. Vietnamese, one of the Mon-Khmer languages of the Austro-Asiatic language family, exhibits strong Chinese influence.

Indian influence is found among the Cham and Khmer minorities.

The Cham, whose language belongs to the Austronesian language family, formed the majority population in the Indianized kingdom of Champa in what is now central Vietnam from the 2nd century to the late 15th century AD. Small numbers of Cham remain in the south-central coastal plain and in the Mekong delta near the Cambodian border. (see map of Viet nam )

The Khmer (Cambodians), whose language is one of the Mon-Khmer languages, are scattered throughout the Mekong delta.