Background
On 2 September 2026, Vietnam's National Day, the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) brought its touring virtual-reality programme Trở về thời khắc thiêng liêng ("Return to the Sacred Moment") to Công viên APEC in Hải Châu ward, Đà Nẵng. The experience recreates 2 September 1945, the day Hồ Chí Minh read the Declaration of Independence at Ba Đình Square in Hanoi and founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Đà Nẵng was one stop on a national tour that began in Hanoi in 2025 and has since travelled to Quảng Ninh, to the Kim Liên national historic site in Nghệ An in May 2026, and to the Independence Palace in Ho Chi Minh City in August 2026. Each city hosts its own staging of the same VR production.
The deployment
The Đà Nẵng staging ran for three days, from 2 to 4 September 2026, opening from 8am to 7pm with free admission. Visitors registered at the Bạch Đằng gate using a national ID card or the VNeID digital identity app, were given a numbered sticker and queued by number.
- Each session took 20 people at a time
- Each headset session lasted about five minutes
- Technical staff fitted the headsets and guided first-time users
- Children from age five could take part; under-nines had to be accompanied by an adult
- After the headset session, visitors moved on to photo areas and received commemorative gifts
Inside the experience
Wearing a headset, a visitor is placed inside the crowd at Ba Đình Square in 1945, facing the podium as Hồ Chí Minh reads the declaration, with the flag-covered square and the sound of the assembled crowd around them. Coverage of the programme describes the square as a rebuilt real-time 3D environment rather than filmed footage, produced using virtual reality alongside artificial intelligence to reconstruct the period setting.
The VR production is the work of the Institute of Information and Communications Technology (CDIT) at the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, which has supported the programme at each stop on the tour.
Who ran it
VOV organised the Đà Nẵng staging in coordination with the city's Party Committee and People's Committee. Delivery was carried out by VTC News and the Đà Nẵng Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, with support from the city Party Committee's Propaganda Board, the Hải Châu Ward People's Committee and CDIT.
Ngô Minh Hiển, VOV's Deputy General Director, opened the event by setting it against the 81 years since the declaration was read. Nguyễn Thu Phương, Deputy Director of the city's culture department, described the programme, quoted below, as an emotional bridge rather than a technology showcase.
Reception
Among the first to put on a headset was Phạm Thị Thao, a Hero of the People's Armed Forces and former commander of the 232nd women's transport battalion, who was visibly moved at finding herself in the crowd looking up at the podium. Queues formed through the opening day, with families bringing young children to the park on the National Day holiday, and organisers reported visitors returning to repeat the experience across the three days.
