Expect a 'flower road'

(Baonghean) - The "flower road" of Nghe An, whether natural, newly formed or long-standing, has come to the point where it needs to be preserved and created into a value dedicated to the homeland.

Sunflower field in Nghia Dan.

Charming sunflower field

In recent years, the sunflower field in Nghia Son commune, Nghia Dan district has attracted many tourists from near and far to visit and enjoy. With the hope that Phu Quy flower field will become a world-famous destination like Tuscany (Italy), Provence (France) or Hokkaido (Japan), Nghe An Tourism Department has many times introduced and promoted this "product" at conferences and tourism fairs at home and abroad...

In 2016, Nghe An once again brought the image of the sunflower field to the Tourism Promotion Conference in Bangkok and Udon Thani, Kingdom of Thailand. Here, the sunflower field was introduced once again. And accompanied by 2 "new products" including the tea island - Cau Cau dam (Thanh Chuong) and Muong Thanh Safari Dien Lam Eco-resort (Dien Chau). The flower field and the cluster of tourism products have attracted the attention of leading travel companies in Thailand.

It is possible that because of the attraction of sunflowers, or the appeal of a rich tourism product cluster, or because of the appearance of the direct flight from Bangkok to Vinh, for the first time in the early days of the flower season, a group of 61 Thai tourists arrived on the red basalt land of Western Nghe An. With the appearance of the tourist group, the charming image of the sunflower field began to spread outside of Vietnam.

Present here, Mr. Athitruta - a reporter specializing in writing about Thai tourism commented: Visiting the flower fields, I found them very beautiful, poetic, and lyrical. The local people are very friendly and hospitable. Mr. Athitruta also added: I was sent by a large travel company in Thailand with the task of recording images of destinations in general, and flower fields in particular, experiencing and evaluating tourism products; providing information to travel companies to help them design Thailand - Vietnam tours with Nghe An as a destination, as well as writing articles for travel pages and magazines...

Delighted with the beauty of the flower fields, this travel reporter also "subtly" commented: The flower fields still lack a system of hotels, motels, homestay development, and stalls selling local tourism products.

To turn the sunflower field into an effective tourism product in particular and tourism development in general, Nghe An province has had many good solutions. One of them is to set up a tourist information counter at Vinh International Airport. In operation for 2 years now, the information counter has attracted 3,546 visitors to learn about tourism information, including 543 international visitors.

Sara Arduino explores the Sunflower Fields.

Ms. Sara Arduino - an Italian tourist learned about the flower fields, tea islands and many other destinations of Nghe An from this information booth. Visiting the flower fields, the tourist from Torino kept exclaiming: "Thousands of bright yellow flowers under the late winter sunlight. So beautiful!".

In the context of declining sea tourism due to marine environmental incidents, in 2016, Nghe An province directed a strong shift to eco-tourism, homestay, and experiences in the Western region... And organizing the Western Spring Festival and Sunflower Festival in 2016 was a wise decision.

During the 3-day festival alone, more than 150,000 tourists visited the sunflower fields, bringing the total number of tourists staying in the province in 2016 to 3.22 million, including 72,860 international visitors, an increase of 12% compared to 2015.

Sunflower fields - the starting point of the Nghe An flower road beckons and opens up a space of Western Nghe An with majestic mountains, poetic and charming landscapes rich in color and fragrance. Along with that are the multi-layered cultural sediments imbued with the identity of the Thai, Tho, Mong, Kho Mu and O Du ethnic groups.

International tourists explore Thanh An Tea Island.

Tea Island - "Green Ha Long Bay"

From the sunflower fields, going along Ho Chi Minh road to the South is the tea island; visitors will have another interesting experience with the charm of nature. That is the tea island - Cau Cau dam in Thanh An commune, Thanh Chuong district. Taking a boat to explore the tea island, Ms. Sara Arduino said: "With more than 100 peninsulas and 35 tea islands, this is a rare poetic landscape".

Dubbed as “Green Ha Long of Nghe An” - the tea island is favorable for developing eco-tourism. Currently, the tea island has about 100 visitors every day; on weekends there are about 500 - 600 visitors and on holidays there are up to thousands of people...

Currently, Nghe An Tourism Department has been strengthening communication and promotion activities to attract visitors and invite large investors to cooperate in building the tea island into a large-scale tourist area. In December 2016, Nghe An province coordinated with Ha Long Kayak Club (Quang Ninh) to organize the event "Kayahing Nghe An Tea Island".

Kayak Ha Long is a sports boat club of Quang Ninh province, gathering many young people who love to travel. The motto of this club, in addition to training, is to explore new tourist attractions, contributing to helping localities promote their destinations... In the event "Kayahing Nghe An Tea Island", 40 members of the Kayak Ha Long Club rowed sports boats, visited, took photos and posted photos, and wrote about their experiences on sports and tourism forums in general.

Impressed and delighted with the tea island complex, Mr. Dinh Quoc Hung - Vice Chairman of Ha Long Kayak Club said: This is the first time I have rowed a boat in the middle of a clear blue river area next to such a poetic, fresh and charming tea hill.

The green terraced tea hills here are as beautiful as those in Moc Chau (Son La). We hope that when Nghe An develops, it will still retain its pristine and harmonious beauty. To make the tea island more attractive, it is necessary to develop more types of traditional tourist boats and sports boats along with accommodation and food services.

Compared to other destinations in the province, the tea island has many advantages for development. In terms of geographical location, this place is located right next to Ho Chi Minh road, not far from Vinh city - Cua Lo town. In particular, the tea island can be "exploited" all 4 seasons of the year. Currently, there are no on-site food and accommodation services, so most tourists come to visit for a while and then return. It is known that there is currently only one enterprise investing in the tea island.

According to the leaders of Thanh Chuong district, in order to sustainably develop the tea island - Cau Cau dam tourist destination, the district has proposed the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to include the tea island in the tourism development project of the western districts of Nghe An; coordinate with the Traffic Construction Corporation 4 to establish a master plan. While waiting for planning and investment, the district calls on people to ensure security, order and environmental sanitation...

Hoa Binh, Cua Rao, Ban Ve roads are famous for reed flowers.

Epilogue

In fact, the “flower road” of Nghe An is not only that. That is, when February comes, the ponds after the spring rain are full of water and covered with purple water hyacinth flowers; in March, the sky is filled with blooming kapok flowers; in summer, everywhere the royal poinciana flowers burn with the sound of cicadas and purple Lagerstroemia flowers.

And, the pink lotus in Kim Lien, Uncle Ho's hometown, the white lotus in front of Can Linh pagoda, pure and cool; the autumn season turns to winter, the reeds along the Lam river bank begin to bloom with endless white. In the West, the colors of poinsettia flowers, wild sunflowers, white plums, pale peaches, lilies, and orchids have added a myriad of colorful flowers to the mountain villages.

The "flower road" of Nghe An, whether natural, newly formed or long-standing, has come to the point where it needs to be preserved and created into a value dedicated to the homeland...

Thanh Son