Phong Dinh Cang Street and its range of emotions

(Baonghean) -When the street name is the name of the land, the street already speaks of its own soul. The street surface changes every day, but still lingers at the beginning of the small alley. A sparsely populated street creates a bit of village space in the middle of the city, and when the name is mentioned, a heroic spirit of revolutionary struggle appears in the mind. There are few streets in Vinh City that bring people to as many emotions as Phong Dinh Cang Street...

A new street of Phong Dinh Cang street

History writes: “The beginning of the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement was the struggle to celebrate International Labor Day on May 1, 1930 by thousands of workers and peasants in Vinh - Ben Thuy. Yen Dung Thuong commune mobilized over 1,200 people, on the morning of May 1, united with groups of farmers from the lower Nghi Loc communes, marching and shouting slogans demanding salary increases, reduced working hours, and tax reductions...”. The thunderous footsteps of that group of fighters once rolled up the red dust of a winding path in the middle of the wasteland, which is now Phong Dinh Cang road. During the anti-American war, the road was surrounded by anti-aircraft artillery positions and bomb craters...

The sacred land does not need to preserve the turbulent forms that have been imprinted in history. People of all times who have been and are attached to the sacred land only need to be kind to be able to cultivate peaceful minds. That contemplation comes from a somewhat special citizen of Phong Dinh Cang street, poet Duong Huy. He stood hesitantly on the balcony looking at the leafless royal poinciana tree in winter, telling me about the day he and some members of the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association came here to build a hut to "turn over" every inch of land, moving the remains of those who died of hunger in the famine of the At Dau century in 1945, to build a house as a place to "settle down" and "lose" the career full of the times of those souls sensitive to the times. I was surprised because the spacious, bustling street today, just over ten years ago, was a wild field, a deserted cemetery.

And just think, Phong Dinh Cang street now, the residential area of ​​artists and writers of Nghe An with the names of Thach Quy, Duong Huy, Hoang Trung, Hai Tho, Quoc Anh... has a bustling scene of talented people. A glimpse of the East Street, where every morning that poet, that painter listens to the sensitive, passionate look at the innocent, chirping children in uniforms going to school, can it resolve the hardships of the times? I remember the poem "Thanh Vinh Rubble" by poet Thach Quy, he wrote when he had not yet become a resident of the street: "Is there any city like this city/Haven't seen tall buildings shining with pink/Have seen the pink smile in the rubble?...". The street that is busy today, surely there is still that pink in the poet's soul and emotions?

The relic of comrade Le Viet Thuat's church on Phong Dinh Cang street.

Nearly 3 km long, Phong Dinh Cang Street is considered a long street of Vinh. But walking on that street, we do not feel rushed, thanks to the emotional levels of the new and old streets. The first part of the street starts on Nguyen Du Street (coinciding with National Highway 1A), which is a new street with modern villas springing up along with trendy service signs commonly seen in young cities. The vague and humble look of the church of Le Viet Thuat - Secretary of the Central Party Committee in the period 1931-1932, a historical son of Yen Dung Ha - the Tenth Quarter of the old Vinh city.

Next, from the intersection of Nguyen Van Troi Street, there is a street with a leisurely flow of all kinds of small services on the West side; on the East side is a mossy wall, the old scene of Vinh Spinning Spinning Factory (now belongs to Hoang Thi Loan Textile Joint Stock Company), Plastic - Packaging Factory (QK4 Economic Cooperation Company)... Occasionally, you can see bamboo clumps with a rustic feel that have not kept up with the construction pace of the new street, dotting the street with a unique space. The West side of the street is also a subsidy-era housing area that is still crowded with workers, in the afternoons, the smoke from charcoal stoves floats on the dark brown tiled roofs, mixed with the smell of grilled meat, and the bustling conversations around the wine and tea mats on the small brick yard make the street unexpectedly familiar. Crossing the Phan Dang Luu - Nguyen Viet Xuan axis is a street that gradually shows the urgent rhythm of modernity, the authentic street experiments of Vinh with many new services...

Phong Dinh Cang is also attractive thanks to the restaurants serving rustic dishes scattered along the street and each dish is only made by one restaurant in the street. These are restaurants serving veal, goat, chicken, crab hotpot, insect snacks... The rest of the breakfast and coffee shops are small, cute but still "sustainable" and not found in every street in Vinh. Phong Dinh Cang Street in Vinh will have a lifestyle as strong as in Hanoi, Saigon perhaps!

Living in the city, attached to the city for a long time, but every time I drive slowly on the street, I let my soul wander in a range of emotions...

Article and photos: Dinh Sam