They are two different things. The channel is one way: we post, you read, and nobody sees your phone number. The community is a chat: members ask where to go, answer each other, and share what they find.
On the channel you get the weekly edition every Thursday, the events board as it fills twice a week, new openings and city news. Most of it is in English. Each place and event links to its own page on this site, in English and Vietnamese.
A WhatsApp community holds a limited number of people, so it fills up and we open a new one. The channel has no limit.
WhatsApp mutes a channel by default when you follow it. If you want to be told when something lands, open the channel and turn notifications on yourself.