Qualla: Vinpearl Cable Car

Vinpearl Cable Car: Introduction

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Zykov, CC BY-SA 2.0. Seven towers stand in the sea between the Nha Trang shoreline and Hon Tre Island. They rise out of open water — no pier connecting them to land, no causeway running beneath them — each one sunk into the seabed on four steel pipe piles drilled as deep as 94 metres into the bedrock. The tallest reaches 115 metres above the waterline, with another 40 metres of its structure hidden below the surface. This is not the kind of engineering you can hide.

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Image: Aleksandr Zykov | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vinpearl Cable Car: Built in Twelve Months

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walej, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Vinpearl Cable Car spans 3,320 metres from the Nha Trang terminal to Hon Tre Island, making it one of the longest over-water cable car runs in the world when it opened. French company POMA designed and supplied the gondola lift system. The foundations and towers were built by...

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Image: Walej | CC BY-SA 4.0

Vinpearl Cable Car: Engineering in Open Water

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit user:She, Public domain. The challenge of building in the South China Sea is not just the water — it is everything the water does. Typhoons track regularly through this part of Vietnam. The seabed is soft sediment over bedrock that can lie 74 to 94 metres down. The average depth of the bay in the crossin...

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Image: user:She | Public domain

Vinpearl Cable Car: The Crossing

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petr & Bara Ruzicka, CC BY 2.0. The gondola ride from Nha Trang to Hon Tre Island passes through a panorama of the bay. Below the cabin, the South China Sea runs in shades of turquoise and deep blue. Behind, the city's crescent waterfront curves away. Ahead, Hon Tre grows from a green smudge to an island with a...

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Image: Petr & Bara Ruzicka | CC BY 2.0

Vinpearl Cable Car: Looking Back at the Shore

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter van der Sluijs, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the midpoint of the crossing — the highest point of the gondola's arc — Nha Trang appears as a long line of white buildings along a beach that stretches for several kilometres. The mountains behind the city close the view to the west, their forested ridges running parallel t...

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Image: Peter van der Sluijs | CC BY-SA 3.0