Mu Cang Chai: A Promising 'Northwest tourist paradise'

Many small towns nest silently in the midst of nature, suddenly one day transforming into a tourist city with overwhelming density of buildings. The original cultural identities are gradually lost by the impact of the market. 

The conflict between the preservation of natural landscapes, traditional cultural values ​​and the stormy development of the economy is always a lesson for any region. Perhaps because of foreseeing these things, at the end of March 2021, Mu Cang Chai district organized a workshop on tourism development directions for the home district. 

The Secretary of the Mu Cang Chai District Party Committee, Mr. Nong Viet Yen and the Chairman of the District People's Committee, Mr. Le Trong Khang showed us the "Project to build Mu Cang Chai district into a tourist district in the period of 2021 - 2015 and orientations to 2030 "and emphasize: This is the determination of the cadres and people of the whole district, to clearly see the potential of Mu Cang Chai for development. 

This potential is not only seen by the people of Mu Cang Chai or Yen Bai, but also for domestic and foreign tourists to come to us, to invest together, to develop together, for everyone to enjoy the natural beauty and the distinct culture of this land. 

Following Highway 32 from Yen Bai city, to Nghia Lo, through Van Chan, arriving at the eastern gate of Mu Cang Chai, upon reaching Khau Pha pass, visitors are stunned with the immense terraced valley below. blue sky, cloudy and sunny. 

The majestic beauty of these terraced hills has been recognized by the Prime Minister as a special National-level monument with nearly 900 hectares of fields.

A Pure White Sand Dune

 

A Pure White Sand Dune in Binh Thuan Province

A pure white sand hill like a snow valley, where the rest is red, all changes colors during the day. Bau Trang (Hoa Thang Commune, Bac Binh District), far from Phan Thiet City is about 5km, offers a beautiful sight.

The two lanes of provincial roads passing through here are like snow-covered roads with characteristic sand. The sand dunes in Bau Trang are blown in by the sea breeze, forming soft curves, with gentle slopes. Visitors can walk along the sand dunes to admire and take selfies.

Because it is located in the most remote area of ​​Binh Thuan Province, bordering Ninh Thuan, Bau Trang used to attract tourists who go by motorbike or private car. In 2018, the yellow beverage selling car on the roadside attracted many young people to check-in. 

In the local language, "Bau" means lake. This place used to be a large lake pouring into the sea. Later, the lake was buried by sand to make roads, the remaining water area includes two small lakes: Bau Ong and Bau Ba. 

In the summer, Bau Ba has lotus flowers, guns in full bloom, surrounded by high casuarina trees, a striking sight in the middle of the white desert. In addition, visitors to Bau Trang can also experience a number of recreational activities such as motorboat ride, stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) or kayak, fishing, and picnic camping. 

Hoi An nesting in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City

 

Hoi An Simulation

In recent days, young people are thrilled with the beautiful virtual paradise of Hoi An ancient town in the heart of the city, or enjoy playing with pure white sand and feeling like being immersed on the beach. 

A simulation of Hoi An at the heart of Ho Chi Minh City makes young people extremely excited  It is a very unique virtual living paradise in Tuong cafe (District 10, Ho Chi Minh City). Just passing through the small alley in front of the cafe, you will see an ancient town of Hoi An as if it is standing in front of its very vivid 3D mural painting style. 

A space has attracted the attraction of so many young people when passing by, with the characteristic golden colour of old town houses, adorned by colorful confetti. On the porch a few birds are parked, the legendary bicycle against the wall

"As a child in the Central region, I am extremely proud of Hoi An ancient town. Today I accidentally saw this extremely unique reproduction space, I will definitely bring my friends here to take some pictures ”, Nguyen Thi Huyen, a student at the University of Education of Ho Chi Minh City, is extremely interested in the 3D mural painting, simulating a small corner of Hoi An in the heart of the city. 

Bai Tu Long Bay

Bai Tu Long Bay

Endowed with a peaceful and unique beauty, Bai Tu Long Bay is creating an interesting attraction for tourists who fall in love with the sea when coming to Quang Ninh. Bai Tu Long Bay possesses enchanting beauty. 

The bay has more than 600 islands, large and small, of which the outstanding is Bai Tu Long National Park, with 3 main island clusters: Ba Mun, Tra Ngo and Dau. 

When coming to Bai Tu Long, you learn about the lives of residents on the island, through fishing villages, aquaculture, along with experiences as a fisherman full of interesting. In addition to the values ​​bestowed by nature, Bai Tu Long Bay is also associated with the history of the Vietnamese people, with the famous Van Don commercial port relic and many historical relics such as the Mac Dynasty (on Ngoc Vung island), Quan Lan communal house; 100-room pagoda (Thang Loi island commune, Van Don district).

Today, the monuments and festivals associated with the above relics are an attractive destination, attracting a lot of visitors. 

Bai Tu Long's Legend

Bai Tu Long is also associated with interesting legends that local people always tell visitors when they first come here. The formation of Bai Tu Long Bay reflects the nation's process of building and defending the country for thousands of years. 

Back to the ancient years, the people of the newly established Vietnamese the country was invaded by foreign invaders. Knowing the situation, the King of Heaven then sent the Mother Dragon to bring a herd of baby Dragons down to earth with the aim of helping and assisting the Vietnamese to fight the enemy.

Dragons sprayed countless pearls and immediately turned into thousands of islands, large and small in the sea, preventing enemy boats from entering the land from the sea. Those islands look like solid walls blocking the enemy's advance. The enemy boat was rushing fast but was blocked by the islands, so it was submerged. The enemy was defeated, the Mother Dragon and her children did not fly back to heaven but stayed on earth. 

The position of the Mother Dragon that first set foot on this day was Ha Long, and the Young Dragon was the position of Bai Tu Long today. One day in the early summer, if you have the opportunity window, let go to Bai Tu Long Bay to admire the landscape of rocky mountains and enchanting sea and sky.

The Beauty of Reed Area, River Dam

 

The wetland area near Tam Ky city possesses a wild landscape dotted with canoes of the local people. Tam Ky has a natural area of ​​about 180 hectares, offering the blending beauty of many species of plants such as reeds, sedge and lotus. 

Dam River gentle flow between the banks of reeds and sedge. According to historical documents, Bai Say - Song Dam relic and Ky Anh tunnels were the revolutionary bases of the eastern Tam Ky area during the war years. 

The terrain here is mostly reeds overgrown with a water level of about 1.6 m, so during the war, only those who are proficient in the terrain could sail the boats along the small entrances inside a reed area.

In daily activities, the people here go to catch snails from 1:30 to 6am. Also, they also have an additional income from fishing, duck farming, and growing lotus. 

Recently, fishermen established a 12-member rowing cooperative group, serving tourists who want to participate in fishing experiences, remove nets on rivers and visit fishing villages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoi An Bustling At Weekend

 

On the weekends from early March, tourists visited Hoi An, and many old streets were filled with people. On weekends, from 14 am to 9 pm on many old streets, visitors follow each other. Every day, the old town attracts more than 1,000 visitors, up to 3 times compared to normal days.

Hundreds of tourists walk on Tran Phu Street. Visitors to Hoi An are mainly domestic, most of which come from neighbouring provinces and cities.

Tourists cycling on Le Loi Street in the old quarter area walk and bicycles, motor vehicles are prohibited. There are many car rental points from 30,000 VND / day, and some hotels also prepare cars for guests to visit.

At night, a series of boats and rafts on the Hoa River light up lanterns, attracting many tourists to enjoy the old town. "After many months of lying on the shore, I have to remodel to serve guests. Every weekend I carry a few passengers and earn more than 200 thousand VND", Mr Hung said and wished for more tourists to come to Hoi An.

Ma Pi Leng Pass

If you stand on Ma Pi Leng Pass, you see Tu San valley and Nho Que river.

The pass is located at an altitude of 1,200 m, which backpackers evaluate as one of the four great mountain passes of the northern mountainous region of Vietnam.

The Beauty of Reed Swamp in Rivev Dam

 

 

The wetland area near Tam Ky city possesses a wild landscape dotted with canoes of the fishermen or local people. Reed swamp in Song Dam area is located in Tam Thang commune. Tam Ky has a natural area of ​​about 180 hectares, offering the blending beauty of many species of plants such as reeds, sedge, and lotus.

Dam River gently flows between the banks of reeds and sedge. According to historical documents, Bai Say - Song Dam relic and Ky Anh tunnels were the revolutionary bases in the eastern Tam Ky area during the war years.

The terrain here is mostly reeded overgrown with a water level of about 1.6 m. During the war, only those proficient in the topography of this terrain could use the piles to fight against the small entrances inside the reed area.

On a rainy day in the swamp, the people here go to catch snails from 1:30 to 6 am. Also, they have an additional income from fishing, duck farming, and growing lotus. That is all about the rural life here. 

Vietnam Stays At The Top Spot for Asian Spring Flower Viewing

Vietnam is proud of Hanoi and Dalat, which are two destinations in the list of 14 most beautiful spring flowers in Asia. 

Nhat Tan Peach Village, Tay Ho District, Hanoi is a favorite place to take photos in spring time, because this is a famous peach growing place. Nhat Tan village is located in the northwestern part of the city, with peach trees in full bloom. 

With a beautiful spring scene and the cold weather, a visit to this place is an enjoyable ride, enabling visitors to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. 

Mossy Season in Ly Son Island

 

 Mossy Season

From the end of December to April, the rocky beaches of Ly Son Island are covered with green moss hidden in the waves. This season, along the embankments on Ly Son Island, the rocks near the shore are covered with green moss. 

 

In the morning, the color of moss blends into the morning mist, the boats in the distance are flickering. Waves fluttered along the coral reef with sparsely grown moss. A coral reef is covered by dense moss. 

Green moss turns yellow on rocks in the early sunlight, next to it is the basket boat of fishermen near the shore. In addition to moss, visitors also take pictures with seaweed species washed ashore Ly Son. Ly Son Island is about 30 minutes from mainland Quang Ngai province by motor boat, inherits unique geological and cultural heritages. 

 

Over the years, the island has attracted domestic and international tourists. Every New Year and New Year's Day, visitors come around up to thousands of people per day. This year, due to the Covid-19 translation, the number of visitors decreased. From the 28th to the 6th of the new year, the total number of tourists was just over 2,000.

Sand Dune Phan Rang

Sand Dune Phan Rang

Outdoor photo exhibition "Dalat Rendezvous" has been held on March 25 - May 9, organized and curated by photographers Phan Quang and Ly Hoang Long. This photo exhibition has 47 photos of 5 authors: Ngo Trung Dung, Tran Bao Hoa, Nguyen Van Thuong, Pham Huy Trung and Dong Lam Thanh Tung.

The immense sand slopes in Phan Rang become works of Pham Huy Trung. He also recorded the beauty of trees every summer in Hoi An until the pink roses bloom when spring comes along the lake in Bao Loc, Lam Dong.

Long Bien Bridge

 

Photo Exhibition "Dalat Rendezvous"

Outdoor photo exhibition "Dalat Rendezvous" has been held on March 25 - May 9, organized and curated by photographers Phan Quang and Ly Hoang Long. This photo exhibition has 47 photos of 5 authors: Ngo Trung Dung, Tran Bao Hoa, Nguyen Van Thuong, Pham Huy Trung and Dong Lam Thanh Tung. 

Author Ngo Trung Dung (Hanoi) brings to the exhibition with the photo series "Long Bien Bridge". Mr. Dung is a financial accountant who loves composing photos of Long Bien Bridge. 

The pace of life is slow in the rainy night that stops all activities at Long Bien Bridge. “Long Bien Iron Bridge was completed in 1902, now is over 100 years old. The bridge is still not a relic but still alive, immersing in the rhythm of Hanoi. 

Hang En Waterfall

 

 Hang En Waterfall

Hang En, 54 m tall, is considered the highest, most beautiful and most mighty waterfall in the Central Highlands. During the dry season, it is 20-30 m wide. Its spray creates plenty of rainbows.

Buu Minh Pagoda

 Buu Minh Pagoda in the morning mist

The pagoda next to a tea field is a famous spiritual tourist spot in the Central Highlands. The road goes across pines, Lake of Tea, Buu Minh Pagoda, Ngo Son field, and Chu Dang Ya volcano is considered the most beautiful tourist route in Gia Lai Province.  

Coffee flower is blooming season on the fields and the tower of Buu Minh pagoda is looming in the distance.  

Each year, coffee flowers usually give a crop about 2-3 times, from December to March next year, each time lasts from 7 to 10 days.  

Early morning is an ideal time for you to "hunt" for coffee flowers. Thanks to the soil characteristics of fertile basalt red soil, this land has become one of the “coffee tree capitals” in the Central Highlands.

Muong Tac Field

Muong Tac Field

If you made the trip to the Northwest after the Lunar New Year, you would witness the hustle work scene of ethnic peope in Muong Tac field in Phu Yen district, Son La. The 1600ha Muong Tac Field is the 4th largest field in the Northwest. 

Immediately after Tet, people of Muong and Thai ethnic groups in Quang Huy, Huy Thuong, Huy Ha communes ... of Phu Yen district enthusiastically plucked and transplanted rice with a cheerful and enthusiastic atmosphere.  

Gradually, the muddy fields were filled with green color of young seedlings. In the spring, they went to the fields to cultivate rice, they all expected to have a rich and full rice crop again.

2021 Expedition Tour in Son Doong

 

2021 Expedition Tour in Son Doong

"Son Doong 2021 expedition tour in Son Doong has attracted a number of around 1,000 visitors who register for a tour in July." said Mr. Nguyen Chau A, director of Chua Me Dat company (Oxalis Adventure) - the only agency operating Son Doong tour. He added that the tour still has about 30 vacant seats, which are being booked but have not been completed due to the lack of the information of bookers. 

In addition, from now until August, there may still be guests canceling the tour. After August, the tour will stop because of the flood season and reopen in 2022. Of the nearly 1,000 registered visitors, 95% are Vietnamese tourists, the rest are foreign visitors, currently living and working in Vietnam. Tourists are among the age of 18-29, 30-40 and over 40. 

Currently, Son Doong tour still applies the stimulus price of 58,200,000 VND. Mr. A said that the company's 2-day expedition tours this year are all between 30% and 50% full. An adventure tour of 4 days 3 nights in Son Doong cave stays at level 6 of adventure, the highest in the tours the company is managing. 

The government of Quang Binh Province permits to organise a tour of a maximum of 1,000 customers to the cave per year. To ensure safety, each tour includes a maximum of 10 tourists, with 30 waitresses, including cave experts, guides, safety assistants, chefs and porters. Tourists should be in good fitness and have experience in trekking. 

Son Doong, the world's largest cave, possesses magnificent stalactites, underground rivers and sinkholes. Especially you find a forest with green vegetation and many unique creatures. At the end of the journey, you will have conquered a 90-meter high stalactite wall, called "The Vietnam Wall". 

In 2020, the company welcome nearly 7,000 tourists to cave tours, a decrease of 50% compared to 2019. The number of Vietnamese tourists is more than 6,000 people, 3 times higher than the previous 9 years of operation when international tourists often accounted for 80% of the total number of tour visitors. 

Conic Hat

A story behind the conic hat

One of the icons of Vietnam is a conic hat. During a business trip in Indonesia, wearing a lotus leaf hat,

Ms. Lan was praised by many international friends and surprised with such unique product. "So I asked the question right away: why are the products so beautiful, but the market is still few, and the designs are not diverse yet?" - said Lan. 

 

After that, she started to study specific materials from which a conic hat is made in Hue, then looking for traditional craft villages in her hometown to connect with more artisans. When coming to the craft villages in Hue, Ms. Lan found that the products here, although they are valuable because they require effort and skills of workers, are sold at low price and need upscaling designs. Many households in Hue cannot live with traditional occupations and have to do other jobs to make a living.

 

"The craft village, therefore, less artisans are younger, only middle-aged, old people stick to their jobs. Understanding that, I tried to import many orders, cooperate with artisans to do more. products on request. After having the goods in hand, I began to transform and commercialize them, turning them into fashion products "- Ms. Lan shared. 

 

Hats, handbags, wallets are adorned by a team of tailors, art painters, and fashion stylists. Ms. Lan wishes to turn these items into trendy fashion accessories, catching trends and the quality is also more guaranteed to match the price of the user. 

 

Within less than 1 year, she had many wholesale orders for sale at home and abroad, she confided: "That is why farmers in the craft village have a long-term supply. People in Pho Trach village have a better understanding of the native products to preserve the environment to grow lotus leaves, and many people return to their traditional profession ".

 

It's an example that connect the livelihood to the environment.  

 

Long Coc Tea Hill

 

Long Coc Tea Hill

The photo depicts Long Coc tea hills in the northern province of Phu Tho, which are shrouded in mist. Long Coc, 112 kilometers from Hanoi, is known as a tourist destination that consists of numerous smaller hills covered in tea plantations. 

The most wonderful moment to selfie is before the sun rises when the mist rolls around gently in front of you. Most of inhabitants live on tea farming, an important occupation and the main source of income for local people. A tea plantation here extent to the horizon, and measures around a hectare.

 

 

Mangrove Ru Cha

 

Mangrove Ru Cha

Thousands of tea trees in the Mangrove Ru Cha are blooming bright yellow, attracting thousands of visitors. Mangrove Ru Cha nests in Thuan Hoa Village, Huong Phong Commune, Thua Thien Hue province is home to thousands of ancient trees. 

Many kinds of birds migrate to forests of more than 5 hectares during the rainy season. Populations of plants densely sprouted, with bright yellow flowers mixed with patches of green trees. This is also the place where shrimp and fish in the lagoon migrate during the breeding season. 

The Mangrove Ru Cha is about 10 km from the center of Hue City, and its free admission for sightseeing makes it a popular destination for many people. Many middle-aged women, clad with traditional ao dai (long dress), come here to take pictures as a souvenir. The scenery in the forest is also chosen by many young people to take pictures. 

Every day, people living in the neighborhood, go to the mangrove for fishing. Many also earn additional income for renting boats. 

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot" Collection

Children's Ao Dai Fashion 

As Ao Dai designer for 20 years, for the first time, designer Lien Huong launches a collection of children's ao dai. The collection consists of 10 shirts with three main colors: blue, yellow and red with lovely and playful drawings typical of Mid-Autumn Festival such as "star-shaped lanterns and carp-shaped lanterns", "swan-shaped lantern and butterfly-lantern lantern " 

In addition to the traditional images, there are also images of modern times children such as images of rabbits, pigs, stars or planets of the solar system ... put on delicate and skillful dress. All the lovely drawings printed on the ao dai of the soft, cool silk are made by the creative designer of Lien Huong

Ms. Trisha Vo, a creative director of the company, shared about the special reason for Lien Huong Ao Dai about this Ao Dai collection for the first time: "I nurtured a plan to carry out a children's collection three years ago, but I haven't found any inspiration yet. Until recently, when my son came back to tell my mother, designer Lien Huong that our school will be holding a Mid-Autumn Festival and you are preparing unique costumes to attend the festival. 

And so we got to work, from sketching the first line to finishing in three weeks. Designer Lien Huong also shared about the collection name: "Mid-Autumn Festival does not take place in a day or a session. The mid-autumn festival is a series of days; starting from the beginning of the eighth lunar month, the children in the village gathered to make lanterns and play games together. In order to know which team wins or loses, children often play 'rock, paper, scissors, shoot game'."

As such, designer Lien Huong named the collection 'Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot".