Bich Tru village in Thai Thinh commune, Hoa Binh city, offers visitors a great opportunity to explore a typical Muong village with beautiful landscape, cultural identities and local people’s hospitality.
Some households in Bich Tru village provide homestay services to tap the potential of the locality.
With the construction of the Hoa Binh reservoir, Bich Tru village lost almost all of its arable land. Villagers have shifted to aquaculture and fishing for a living. They have also started tourism to take advantage of the local natural landscapes and traditional culture. Currently, 53 households in the village have 167 fishing cages and four households have engaged in tourism in combination with aquaculture.
It only takes 20 minutes by boat or road to travel from Hoa Binh city’s centre to Bich Tru village. Typical features of Muong village can be found in Bich Tru village, especially stilt houses.
A villager, Bui Van Chuc, said that to protect the forest, his village has long stopped building wooden stilt houses. They switched to building concrete stilt houses which are both solid and airy. In particular, livestock barns are now moved away from the houses to ensure a hygienic environment.
Not only preserving the stilt houses, Bich Tru villagers also keep many customs, which give the village a unique charm.
Women in the village still wear the traditional costumes on holidays and New Year celebrations. In addition, villagers have established a team to practice ancient gong and other traditional songs or dances. They usually perform the songs and dances during holidays and festivals.
Tran Van Doan, head of Bich Tru village, said that local authorities have always urged locals to keep the village clean and green to attract tourists.
Visitors to the village can explore the village by bicycles, climb mountains, go fishing and try local dishes made in Muong style.
Ha Van Thiem, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Binh commune, said that seeing the village’s advantages of natural landscape, the local authority aims to turn Bich Tru into a tourism destination.
The commune has supported households to invest in developing unique tourism products and cooperate with villages of Da Bac district to create attractive tourist routes in the Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant’s reservoir area.
In the first 9 months of 2024, Hoa Binh province continues to implement the expanded tourism development cooperation program plan of 8 Northwest provinces with Ho Chi Minh City; deploying digital transformation content in tourism and developing a smart tourism province. Hoa Binh province received about 3.6 million views, an increase of 7.9% over the same period. In which, international visitors are about 380 visitors, domestic visitors are estimated at 3 million 220 visitors.
Spanning thousands of hectares and winding gracefully along mountain slopes, hillsides, and riverbanks, the terraced rice fields of Lac Son District present a stunning and captivating beauty. This region, renowned for its remarkable terraced landscapes, is also the centre of Hoa Binh Culture known for numerous archaeological sites.
The life of Mong people in Hang Kia and Pa Co communes of Mai Chau district has improved much thanks to tourism development.
The man-made Hoa Binh Lake, with a water surface area of approximately 9,000 hectares and a capacity of 9.45 billion cubic meters, stretches over 200 kilometers from Hoa Binh to Son La provinces. With the goal of developing into a national tourism area, the Hoa Binh Lake tourism area is expected to not only become the largest tourism centre in the province but also one of the 12 key tourist destinations in the northern midland and mountainous region of Vietnam.
Da Bia hamlet, now Duc Phong, in Tien Phong commune, Da Bac district, was once almost isolated from the outside as the only way to the hamlet was to get a boat ride across the Hoa Binh reservoir. However, as its tourism potential has been unleashed, the hamlet has established itself as one of the most attractive destinations on the tourism map. It has even received the ASEAN Community-Based Tourism Awards in 2019.
In the first 9 months of 2024, Mai Chau district, Hoa Binh province welcomed over 684 thousand visitors to visit and relax. In which, over 516 thousand domestic visitors and more than 168 thousand international visitors. Total revenue from tourism is estimated at over 821 billion VND.
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