and Temple Yards

1 ~mrtyour w~ip w~ mrs th autumn wind.
In the region referred to by geographers as Southeast Asia lies the
elongated '5"- shaped country of Viemam. Occupying an area of about
128, 408 square miles, it is dkctl y south of China, bodered by Cambodia
and has an the west, the Gulf of Tonkin to the northeast, the Gulf of Thailand to the
southwest and the South China Sea to the east. Vietnam's strategic Iwation has resulted in
a number of international confluences though the ages.
"Two baskets of rice slung on a pole" is a dehption the Vietnamese offer of their
county. The baskets are the deltas of the Red Ever in the north and the Mekong in the south,
and the carrying pole of those rice baskets is a series of mountain chains along the western
brder, known as the Annamite Cordillera (Tmhg Sun. "Long Mountains"'). The whole is
about f OOO miles Iong-similar to California. Vietnam can be further divided into eight
natural regions: three low-1 ying plains (including the two major rives deltas), three mountain
mas, a northem midland region of terraced hills, and a large southern mountain plateau.
There is Iinle geopphic unity thughout the country, but since the buIk of the 52,750,000
Vietnamese people cultivate rice, most of them are concentrated in the tiny, humid fowland
pockets and along the seacoast.
One half of the country is covered by jungle-like rain forests, and nearly four-fifths
of the land is covered by trees and tropical vegetation. There is diversity in the lay of the land,
however, from mountains and plains to lush green valleys. carefully manicured rmces,