Plenty of people walking Vietnam's streets have run into sidewalks so buried in weeds you can't pass, or intersections where signs are hidden by grass. That picture is starting to change, bit by bit. Driving it are neither the authorities nor big corporations, but people in their twenties. Between shifts, they bring their own trash bags and sickles and spend days restoring neglected sidewalks and gutters. Post the process in a short video and, one after another, others start doing the same. Vietnam's streetscapes are being repainted slowly, from the ground up.<\/p>\n
VnExpress (July 13, 2026) rounded up the spread of this volunteer cleanup in a single article. Emblematic is Hoang Van Hung, a 28-year-old delivery driver living in Hung Yen Province near Hanoi. In June, he single-handedly cleared about 500 meters of weed-buried sidewalk and turned it back into a walkable path. More than ten young people from the Van Giang area, inspired by the move, joined in, and Hung's work is growing from one person's goodwill into a team. His words\u2014\"I want to build an organized team that can take on bigger jobs too\"\u2014hint at where this phenomenon is headed.<\/p>\n
In Vietnam's cities, the reason sidewalks are unwalkable isn't simply the amount of litter. Many stretches are taken over by parked motorbikes and street stalls, never maintained on the premise that people would walk them in the first place. In alleys and gutters that municipal cleaning can't easily reach, around cemeteries, and on suburban school routes, weeds explode across the rainy season and swallow even the signs. Unless someone steps in, the neglect drags on for years.<\/p>\n
What broke this pattern was social media. Short videos placing \"before and after\" cleanups side by side spread easily precisely because the visual change is clear. Groups tackling trash collection in canals and rivers, such as \"Sai Gon Xanh\" and \"Ha Noi Xanh,\" have been active since 2022, and these earlier examples created a mood of \"I can do it too.\" There are now said to be about 30 social media channels dedicated to cleanups. Cleaning is shifting in meaning from a quiet act of service to a shared and praised behavior.<\/p>\n
What's striking is that this change didn't begin with calls to 'please donate' or 'volunteers wanted.' First one person works quietly with their hands and shows only the result in a short video. Viewers respond not to words but to visible change, and pick up a sickle themselves. Praise and sympathy don't come first; a concrete result comes first, and it draws out the next action. At a time when social media is often cast as a machine for spreading negativity, a circuit where physical improvements to the city chain together reflects one side of Vietnam's youth culture.<\/p>\n
| Groups and organizers<\/th>\n | Base<\/th>\n | Main activities<\/th>\n | Figures we could verify<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sai Gon Xanh<\/td>\n | Ho Chi Minh City<\/td>\n | Collecting trash from canals and rivers<\/td>\n | Active since 2022<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hanoi Xanh (Ha Noi Xanh)<\/td>\n | Hanoi<\/td>\n | Cleaning rivers and canals<\/td>\n | Active since 2022<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hoang Van Hung (28)<\/td>\n | Hung Yen province<\/td>\n | Clearing weeds from neglected sidewalks<\/td>\n | About 500 m revived in June<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Vu Duy Nhat (25)<\/td>\n | Hanoi<\/td>\n | Cleaning sidewalks and school routes<\/td>\n | A single video reached 19 million views<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cleanup-focused social media channels<\/td>\n | Nationwide<\/td>\n | Posting before-and-after videos<\/td>\n | about 30 channels<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\nThe volunteers and residents' voices<\/h2>\nSupporting this movement are not people with time to spare, but rather young people who work day to day. Vu Duy Nhat, 25, of Hanoi, has kept cleaning sidewalks and roads since late 2025 alongside his delivery job. A video of him cleaning a school route reached 19 million views. \"Encouragement from viewers at home and abroad is what keeps me going,\" he says. Individual action has become a chain that calls forth the action of others.<\/p>\n Dam Quang Linh, 26, who runs a caf\u00e9, has joined seven cleanup actions so far. 'Rather than put in money, I want to use my own time and effort to clean up my hometown.' Cleaning is taken not as a donation or a volunteer drive but as hands-on, direct participation.<\/p>\n Nearby residents' reactions push the movement along too. Quoc Trung, who lives in the Nguyen Trai area, offered the young cleaners water and protective gear and said: \"What they're doing is invaluable to the community.\" Rather than waiting on the government, residents who see the neighborhood change before their eyes pitch in with small support.<\/p>\n The 'change in the city' that residents and travelers feel<\/h2>\nThis phenomenon isn't someone else's problem for Japanese residents and travelers in Vietnam. It's been half-accepted wisdom that \"sidewalks aren't for walking,\" with dodging parked bikes and stalls to walk at the edge of the road taken for granted. In stretches the young cleaners have reached, that premise is breaking down, and genuinely walkable sidewalks are returning. The very experience of moving through the city could change. Speaking of getting around, in Hanoi,Electrifying the city buses<\/a>is also underway, and from the sidewalks underfoot to public transport, the city's everyday life is being updated on both fronts.<\/p>\n |