Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm

Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm, commonly known as Phan Rang, is a former city in Vietnam and the capital of Ninh Thuận Province, in the southernmost part of the South Central Coast region. The community had 207,998 people in 2023, of whom 196,459 lived in the main city. The city lies in the centre of the province, 1,380 kilometres south of Hanoi, 330 kilometres northeast of Ho Chi Minh City and 95 kilometres south of Nha Trang, and borders the South China Sea at Phan Rang Bay on its east, with a 10-kilometre coastline whose seafood industry matters to the local economy. It has a tropical savanna climate, Köppen As, just rainy enough to avoid a semi-arid classification, and is among the cities with the least rainfall in Vietnam. The area was Panduranga, a principality of Champa founded in 757 that became the capital of the Champa kingdom from 1471 to 1693 and was annexed by the Vietnamese in 1832. The town of Phan Rang was established in 1917 under Emperor Khải Định, the two towns of Phan Rang and Tháp Chàm were combined in 1992, and the city gained city status in 2007. The name Tháp Chàm refers to a Champa temple tower and is taken from the Po Klong Garai Temple in the north of the city.