Phan Thiết

關於Phan Thiết

Phan Thiết is the former capital of Bình Thuận Province on the southeast coast in Vietnam. While most of the inhabitants live in the city center, others reside in the four urban coastal wards, extending from Suối Nước beach in the northeast towards cape Kê Gà in the southwest.

Traditionally, fishing and the manufacturing of fish sauce served as the main source of Phan Thiết's local economy. The rise of tourism as the region's primary employer can be attributed to its beaches, and thus its growth is rapidly overshadowing its prevalent fishing industry.

There are several theories relating to the origin of the name Phan Thiết, most of which argue is not an authentic Vietnamese name:

Before the Vietnamese conquest of the area in the 17th century, the Cham people called the land "Hamu Lithit" – with "Hamu", meaning 'hamlet in the field', and "Lithit", defined as 'near the sea'. Coinciding with the arrival of Vietnamese settlers, a new name in Vietnamese was gradually developed. Since the Vietnamese had already altered the Cham city of Panduranga into Phan Rang and another settlement into Phan Rí, they attached the prefix "Phan" into the shortening...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.