Hanoi Museum remains mired in controversy Vice head of Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has blamed the lack of visitors and poor exhibits for the failure of the Hanoi Museum, which opened in October, 2010.    Hanoi Museum Many people have complained that Hanoi’s newest museum despite its size is largely bare of exhibits, with the two floors still yet to open and two floors barely containing any displays almost five years after it was built. Truong Minh Tien, deputy director of Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the museum cost VND1.69 trillion (USD80.8 million) to build. The museum received 111,000 visitors in 2014 and 50,000 in the first six months of this year. When asked why the number of visitors was so low, Tien straight-facedly replied that it’s "still new, there's nothing yet to attract visitors." He went on to say that current exhibits were only temporary, and didn’t have anything to particularly attract visitors anyway. He hoped more people will come when the museum "officially opens exhibitions,” something the building has apparently failed to do in almost five years. Nascent anti-Chinese sentiment seems to be behind public concerns over the similarity between Hanoi Museum and Chinese Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. However, architect Hoang Dao Kinh said Hanoi Museum's construction started in 2005 while the Chinese Pavilion was built in 2007. "The only similarity between these designs is that they both have the overall design of an inverted pyramid. They have different architecture solutions," he said. Architect Dang Viet Long from Hanoi Construction University also said Hanoi Museum and Chinese Pavilion were not unique in employing an inverted pyramid design. Dtinews