“Ancient features in the heart of the city” is the title that journalist Dinh Sam (Nghe An Newspaper) gave to his article about Dao Tan Street. The article was published in 2014, but right from the first lines, he emphasized the position of Dao Tan Street, and expressed his hopes for the future:“The road that runs through the inner area of the Citadel will be well-known in the future, when the Vinh Citadel Park Project is implemented with a complex of diverse and rich services, entertainment, and cultural tourism. Now, Dao Tan Street is also considered the most culturally and historically significant street in Vinh…”.
Dao Tan Street is a nearly 600m long street that passes through the Vinh Ancient Citadel National Monument, starting at the intersection of Quang Trung Street, crossing the Citadel Moat, dividing into two branches embracing the Left Gate, going about 200m deep, then dividing into two branches embracing the Right Gate, crossing the Citadel Moat and connecting with the Tran Hung Dao main street. The Citadel area, right on Dao Tan Street and the adjacent area, has many historical relics, such as the Moat, the Left Gate, the Right Gate, and also the Front Gate, the Citadel Bank, the Guard Post, Vinh Prison, the Stele of Uncle Ho's Visit to His Hometown... Along with historical relics, there is also a system of Nghe An Museum, Nghe - Tinh Soviet Museum, Stadium - "Fire Pan of Vinh Citadel", Song Lam Football Club Headquarters... Therefore, it is not wrong when journalist Dinh Sam emphasizes that the street named after Dao Tan, Governor of An - Tinh, a famous honest mandarin of the Nguyen Dynasty, one of the founders of the art of Tuong, is a place rich in cultural and historical significance of the Red City.
With all due respect, he wrote:“It seems that no one in the city and even visitors from afar to the Red City do not want to visit this city at least once. The deep moat of the ancient citadel is still there, the remains of the citadel gate stand tall as witnesses to a rare pride of the city of Vinh type 1. Time quietly cycles, the four seasons of the city still accumulate deep feelings beside the profound museum buildings that lead today back to thousands of years of culture and history of Nghe An; and witness the excitement of the home field of the "fire pan of Vinh city" which has been crowned several times by the football team Song Lam Nghe An and other facilities that nurture high-achieving sports talents..”.
Journalist Dinh Sam confided in the article “Dao Tan Street – Ancient features in the heart of the city” that he was lucky to work when Nghe An Newspaper was located at the beginning of Dao Tan Street. Then there were many afternoons wandering on Dao Tan Street, understanding that the ancient citadel wall sediment street “contained” the working class, and was also a shelter for many artists. At small bars, serving drinks to those photographers, painters and musicians, knowing about the joys, anger, love and hate of the new people in the Citadel, in the eyes of those who do art, it came alive, and at least somewhere now, those who passed away due to serious illness have left behind lingering words, those who left the Citadel to make a living elsewhere, still longingly dreaming of the moonlit night of the citadel gate… After those not-so-distant years, they left the Citadel, some to their eternal place, some to other lands, and the last “step” of farewell was also on this Dao Tan Street…
And then he ended the article:“Although it is a young city, but keeping in the heart of an ancient citadel shape that will be promoted in value in the future, Vinh has been imbued with the sound of the old and new streets to build a central urban area of the North Central region. And Dao Tan street will be an important inner-city road that calls back and spreads those values. And the people of the city, surely everyone wants to collect for themselves new feelings of pride and affection about a street that is developing vibrantly in the heart of the ancient citadel space of their hometown city!”.
On Dao Tan Street, historical relics such as the Citadel, the Left Gate, the Right Gate... and the museum system are still there. But now, when the number of businesses increases, and especially when the night food street is gradually becoming known as a culinary center, the "ancient features in the heart of the city" have somewhat declined. Just counting from the beginning of 2022, when people have gradually forgotten the Covid-19 pandemic, almost every night on Dao Tan Street (from the Left Gate to the Soviet Nghe - Tinh Museum) is always crowded and noisy with business people and people enjoying food and drinks; and cramped to the point of congestion because of cars and motorbikes entering and leaving, parking. During the day, when the bright electric lights are gone, this street section reveals a chaotic, shabby, dirty, and filthy reality with makeshift stalls and all kinds of garbage.
Also in 2022, Vinh city authorities will implement the goal of renovating and repairing the night food street to improve infrastructure and culinary venues for residents and tourists, contributing to improving business efficiency and developing the regional economy. Specifically, the project to renovate, repair and embellish the technical infrastructure system of the night food street area on Dao Tan street (from the Left Gate to the Right Gate of Vinh ancient citadel; the western section of the night food street from Dao Tan street to Vinh Stadium) will be implemented with a total investment of over 8 billion VND. The renovated items include sidewalks, drainage ditches, trees, construction of symbols, installation of decorative lights, and lighting systems for night food street gardens. In the past few months, the main items such as sidewalks, drainage ditches, symbols, etc. have been basically completed, but Dao Tan street has not become civilized - green - clean because of that.
At night on Dao Tan Street, thanks to the lights, the Left Gate, the Right Gate, and the night food street become sparkling, but the traffic jam is still the usual scene because of the dense parking of cars and motorbikes. Lacking parking space, people remove the protective ropes of the Left Gate, bring motorbikes inside and park them in the narrow spaces between the gates and ornamental plants; as for cars, they park on the curb surrounding the city gate, or line up along both sides of the sidewalk, in front and behind the Left Gate. Dao Tan Street is already narrow, so it is congested.
During the day, the scene is still chaotic, shabby, dirty, and unkempt. The sidewalk is now paved with terrazzo tiles, and the curbs are made of uniform, natural gray stone, which is quite beautiful, increasing the aesthetics of the entire road. Ideally, businesses should be more aware of this to protect themselves, but in reality, it is not like that. To create a path to the sidewalk for cars and motorbikes to park, they use broken bricks, stones, and coal slag to cover the area where the curb meets the road. On the sidewalks, very few businesses dismantle or clean up tents, support poles, tables, chairs, grills, etc. Not only that, the road and sidewalks are always littered with all kinds of filth and garbage.
Because the environmental sanitation on Dao Tan Street is still poor, the author contacted Mr. Phan Van The - Captain of Garbage Collection Team No. 1 (Team in charge of environmental sanitation on Dao Tan Street). According to Mr. The, on Dao Tan Street, the Team is assigned to collect garbage from 6pm to 2-3am the next morning. Due to the unique nature of the night food street, the Team has arranged 2 workers to collect garbage 3 times each night. The first time is at 6pm, the second time is at 10pm, and the last time is around 2-3am. For fixed businesses, they are conscious, but for spontaneous businesses on the sidewalk, it is really difficult, both in collecting garbage and collecting fees.
Mr. The said: “In the city’s contract, Dao Tan Street is not cleaned during the day. After the workers’ working hours, this area is basically clean, but at 4-5am, when the households pack up and return home, they return to their original state. Especially in the location of barbecue restaurants, there is always a lot of trash on the sidewalks and streets, from potato peels, corn cobs, paper towels, etc. These are problems that we, the environmental sanitation workers, really hope to have a solution to change…”.
The Vinh Citadel area is under the management of Cua Nam ward, so, the existence on Dao Tan street, as well as the wishes of the author of the article "Dao Tan Street - Ancient features in the heart of the city" with the ward officials. According to them, the night food street with many specialties of Nghe An attracts a certain number of tourists, contributing to the development of the night economy of the ward and the city. However, the business is mostly spontaneous, lacking management, not creating enough highlights to attract and retain tourists... so it has not fully promoted its value and effectiveness and is having problems. Realizing this situation, at the end of 2022, the ward developed the Project "Vinh Citadel Night Food Street" to implement and change.
The project has outlined what needs to be done and will be done. Specifically, for spontaneous businesses on the sidewalk, it will require the synchronous implementation of mobile booths and booths according to available models, with roofs, easy to disassemble, clean and ensure aesthetics. Or as for environmental sanitation, for fixed businesses, it is required to build septic tanks with wastewater connected to the city's drainage system; for mobile businesses, the ward will organize work to deploy a mobile toilet system to ensure meeting the needs. The ward will also require businesses to ensure environmental sanitation at their business locations. That is, after the end of operating hours according to regulations, they must collect garbage and waste for workers of Nghe An Urban Environment and Construction Joint Stock Company to collect; must clean up their business locations, not allowing garbage and waste to accumulate and affect the surrounding area. Tables, chairs, counters, mobile booths, etc. serving business on the sidewalk must ensure order, neatness and urban aesthetics; when closed, they must be tidied up, cleaned, and the area returned to its original state.
To put an end to the situation of parking cars and motorbikes haphazardly, avoid affecting relics and causing traffic jams, at business locations, the ward will create parking areas for business owners to arrange things neatly and tidily; and will arrange a car parking area around the Song Lam Nghe An football field area... At the same time, the ward will also establish a Management Board and Self-Management Teams to manage environmental sanitation, fire prevention and fighting, safety, order, traffic safety, food safety..., and collect funds and fees.
Chairman of the People's Committee of Cua Nam Ward, Mr. Dang Hieu Lam, said: "When the project to renovate, repair and improve the technical infrastructure system of the night food street area is completed, the ward will implement the project. The ward has also proposed that the city direct the investor to promptly complete and hand over this project...".
Listening to the discussion of the Chairman of the People's Committee of Cua Nam Ward, opened up hope. Because I think the author of the article "Dao Tan Street - Ancient features in the heart of the city" was very right when he recognized Dao Tan Street as a street with the most cultural and historical significance in Vinh. And I think, the street named after the famous honest mandarin Dao Tan deserves to receive investment and care to become an important highlight of the city to spread the values...