The Vietnamese remember that he was an immense benefactor during his half-century of living with them, and some even confer upon him the status of a divinity. We do not know what Alexandre Yersin really was: scientist who conquered the plague, explorer of the lands of Annam, agronomist who tamed rubber or quinine for Indochina, entrepreneur with 20,000 hectares cultivated.
We could well imagine that things had changed and we knew that the professor's beautiful white house, at the top of the bay at the mouth of the Cai River, was no longer there. The bay of Nha Trang had inevitably undergone metamorphoses, but we did not want to ruin the magic of the discovery by resorting to Google Images. And then, through the plane window, we discovered this seafront, punctuated with large stems. It was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of France's Asian century. Discover in this issue theHistory of France’s Asian Century.