Phu Quy Sovereignty Flagpole

This is the National Sovereignty Flagpole on Phú Quý island, usually just called the Phú Quý Flagpole. It stands on the eastern tip of Chuối hill, in Triều Dương hamlet. Below it lies Gành Hang: black cliffs rising straight out of the sea, shaped into all kinds of forms by volcanic lava, wrapped around a crescent-shaped beach with rocky points reaching into the water.

A flag raised by the young, and kept by them

The flagpole is still very young. Construction began on 17 June 2015 and it was inaugurated on 12 August 2015, as part of the programme "Students for the Nation's Seas and Islands". It was led by the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (Trung ương Đoàn) and the Central Committee of the Vietnam Students' Association, together with BIDV, and was presented as a gift from the country's youth and students to mark a Party Congress. It is one of seven flagpoles raised on seven frontline islands: đảo Trần, Bạch Long Vĩ, Hòn La, Cù Lao Xanh, Phú Quý, Côn Sơn and Thổ Chu. At the inauguration, Mr Phạm Quynh, an elderly resident of Triều Dương hamlet, said he felt honoured that the island now had a sovereignty flagpole.

At the top of the steps is a square courtyard facing the East Sea. In its centre stands a four-sided base, 5.2 metres tall and clad in white-grey granite, bearing the national flag, the national emblem, the country's official name and the geographic coordinates of the flagpole itself. Above it, the flag is sewn from durable fabric to withstand the sea wind. One thing you will not see: a reinforced-concrete foundation sunk deep beneath the rock, built the way foundations are built for lighthouses. And in the courtyard grows a tropical almond tree (cây bàng), planted after a flag ceremony in June 2023.

Have you ever wondered what gives meaning to a structure only a little over ten years old? Here, the answer is young people. Students helped build it; the island's youth union is entrusted with its grounds; many youth groups and the Coast Guard have come here to hold flag ceremonies, such as the "Tôi yêu Tổ quốc tôi" ("I love my Fatherland") ceremony held by Ho Chi Minh City youth in early 2024. Almost every visitor to the island stops by. When does a heritage begin: the day the foundation is poured, or the day the first young people come back to stand beneath the flag? Perhaps you have to stand on that hilltop, facing the sea, to answer it.

Enough to decide whether to go

What it is

The National Sovereignty Flagpole on Phú Quý island, one of seven on frontline islands

Where

Eastern tip of Chuối hill, above Gành Hang beach, Triều Dương hamlet, Phú Quý island (now part of Phú Quý Special Zone, an island-level administrative unit of Lâm Đồng province)

Inaugurated

12 August 2015

Built by

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee and the Vietnam Students' Association, with BIDV

What to see

A 4 x 6 m flag on a 22.6 m pole; a granite base bearing the national emblem and official name

Kept by

The island's youth union, which looks after the grounds