Michael Batson

Cần Thơ is the capital of the Mekong Delta, a flat fertile plain the size of Denmark known in Vietnam as the "Rice Bowl" or “Sông Cửu Long”. In a few short years Cần Thơ has gone from being a river port town with a few bustling markets to the fourth largest city by population in Vietnam. It’s a regional center, a big university town, and a transport and primary production hub with a quiet buzz about it. The Mekong Delta is where the mighty Mekong River, the "River of the Nine Dragons", the longest river in Southeast Asia and the 12th longest in the world, splits into nine delta arms before merging with the South China Sea, an expanse of water called the East Sea by anyone in Vietnam.The delta is the most prominent irrigated rice system in Vietnam where water, boats, houses, farms, markets, and their people have coexisted for centuries. Home to 19 million people, the delta is crisscrossed by waterways, a billiard table of greenery with canals and rivers, a saturated landscape barely keeping its head above water. This natural wonderland dubbed a "biological treasure trove” provides most of Vietnam’s fish and fruit, as well as half its rice – all from just 12% of its land area. While different regimes have come and gone, the natural delta has survived and thrived, but times could be changing. Cần Thơ - Old MarketCần Thơ has over four million inhabitants. A big city by population but with a laid-back small-town feel. It sits on the Hậu River (Sông Hậu) which starts