Almost one year away from the Hanoi-Thang long millennium event, but the capital city has been heating up with celebrations, including contests on stamp designing, poems and music composition for the October 10, 2010 festivities.

The Vietnam Post Corporation has held a contest to design stamps on Hanoi, highlighting the city’s role as the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as well as its socio-economic achievements, the Hanoi modern life and its industrialisation and modernisation process.

The Van Nghe Cultural and Art Newspaper run by the Vietnam Writers’ Association has launched a programme to select the best 100 poem lines, focusing on Hanoi. The award ceremony is expected to take place on the Vietnam Poem Day which is also the first full moon day of the coming lunar year - the Year of Tiger.

The Hanoi Music Association has planned to present a number of new works about the capital, including a musical play named Hoa Lu-Thang Long by famous composer Doan Nho.

The association has recently published a comprehensive book on Hanoi music named “The Hanoi Songs in the 20th and early 21st Centuries,” consisting of 300 songs about the capital city and six analyses on various stages of music developments.