%%Sixty kilometres southwest of Hà Nội is Chùa Hương compound. Usually known to foreign tourists as the Perfume Pagoda, it is found on the last range of the Sơn La-Mộc Châu limestone range in northern VietNam and covers 5,134 ha stretching over the four southern communes of Mỹ Đức district in Hà Tây province. Occupying an important position in both Buddhism and Vietnamese culture, Chùa Hương adds a unique cultural feature to the Southeast Asian and Asian region. The area's romantic scenery provides a perfect backdrop to the development of spiritual life as well as providing magical natural surroundings. Impressed after his visit to Chùa Hương, Hasegawa Mirokazu, president of the Hasegawa Construction Company which manages Japan's biggest cultural and Buddhist villages, said: Chùa Hương deserves the pride of being an excellent tourist destination. Foreigners coming here seem to be very drawn to its beauty and nature's romantic scenery which bears deep Vietnamese cultural characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to improve Chùa Hương's infrastructure to preserve its natural as well as cultural heritage. However, unfortunately, the entire area is now facing severe environmental pollution and traffic problems caused, on the one hand by tourists and, on the other, by bad management by local authorities. Better-late-than-never, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has recently received a masterplan on Environmental Improvement and Traffic Solutions. But first, Chùa Hương's two major problems must be solved. Local authorities reveal that if these pollution and traffic problems are not overcome quickly, the area will face total destruction in the near future. Some are even thinking of making Chùa Hương the place to pray for world peace. If so, it would become the third place in the world after Verona in Italy and Hiroshima in Japan, and planners are working hard from now to the year 2000 to achieve this goal. (VNS)