At the ceremony to release the book (Photo: VNA)

The book, nearly 10,000 pages thick, 16 x 24 cm in size, issued by the History Institute under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), was first published in Vietnamese six decades ago and first reprinted in 2001.
Associate Prof. Dr. Do Bang, Vice President of the Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), said the book features the construction of the former royal capital of Hue (now in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue), citadels in localities, as well as the development of the domestic shipbuilding industry.

In 1803, King Gia Long (1762-1820) ordered the reestablishment the Hoang Sa (Paracel) fishing boat fleet and sent naval forces to establish the country’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa, according to the book. King Minh Mang then dispatched representatives from various central offices to the archipelago to exercise Vietnam’s sea and island sovereignty.