When taking a trip to the town of Truong Sa Lon in the Truong Sa (Spratly) island district of the southern coastal province of Khanh Hoa, visitors are often surprised to see that life here is very similar to any other town in the country.
Nobody can imagine that they are hundreds of nautical miles away from the mainland when seeing houses with red-tiled roofs behind the orchards and trees, children on their way to school or women visiting pagodas on the fifteenth day of the lunar month.
Truong Dinh Phuong, a resident in Truong Sa Lon town, told a Vietnam News Agency reporter that his family lacks nothing, although the facilities on the island are not quite up to standard as compared to the mainland.
Built on a plot of 200sq.m, Phuong and his wife’s red-roofed and yellow-walled house is equipped with a wind and solar power system. Like other families on the island, Phuong’s family can use any electrical appliance that they choose.
These days the distance between the mainland and Truong Sa has been further shortened, as the Viettel mobile phone network now covers the Truong Sa archipelago.
32-year-old resident Dang Thanh Chuong said that people on the island are very friendly and supportive. Fishermen donate fish to soldiers after bumper catches and soldiers give back things that they grow or raise such as fruit, vegetables, pigs and chickens, he added.
His wife and daughter who live with him on the island said that contributing to the development of Truong Sa makes them happy as they feel that they are fulfilling their responsibility to the motherland.
These are our waters, where we do our fishing and the island is our second fatherland where my entire family belongs,” said another resident Vo Van Truong.
Apart from the soldiers who defend the country’s territorial waters, local residents like Chuong and Phuong, as well as other young leaders, including the Vice President of Truong Sa Lon town Nguyen Quoc Thien and President of the town’s Vietnam Fatherland Front Le Minh Canh are those who have contributed to the vitality of Truong Sa Lon, and as well as of the country’s islands as a whole.
