What's so special about the Red City?

Vinh still has a lot of vacant land for future plans. The central park is under construction. There will be a large statue of Uncle Ho with a height of nearly 18 meters in Ho Chi Minh Square. The statue will have a majestic and gentle beauty when he returns to his homeland. The construction site is urgently speeding up all work. The statue faces the Northeast, with its back leaning against Chung Mountain, which is being built higher every day to simulate the mountain of Uncle Ho's homeland. The granite material from the Binh Dinh gemstone mine will sparkle with beauty, the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Institute is in charge of the design and will complete the work in early May so that on Uncle Ho's birthday we will have the largest and most beautiful statue of him in the country. Coming to Nghe An to visit Uncle Ho's homeland, admire the mountains and rivers of a sacred land, and admire the beautiful statue of him will easily make visitors feel elated.

Nghe An has many attractive things: famous Xa Doai oranges, aromatic and bitter green tea, crispy Nghe eggplants, sweet Nghe grapefruit, Nghe An teachers who teach letters in many regions of the country. Nghe An is poor but its education is famous as folklore has it: "morning sweet potatoes, noon sweet potatoes, evening sweet potatoes, three meals of sweet potatoes / the father passes, the father passes, the son passes, the whole family passes". Writer Dang Thai Mai has written many pages about Nghe An and the people of Nghe An: "Brave to the point of negligence, diligent to the point of recklessness, determined to the point of dryness and frugal to the point of being stingy". Perhaps the most outstanding thing about the people of this land is the will to pursue to the end the goal of establishing a career and a life. Nghe An people are often strong and sometimes extreme. Professor Bui Van Nguyen, a native of Nghe An, once said in a meeting: "When two Nghe An cadres argue with each other, people from other provinces should not participate". Poet Minh Hue commented, "Vinh people are steadfast, upright but also very polite". That Nghe quality is also quite evident in the young generation. Nghe students were once famous. The story goes that once on a fourth-class train during the French colonial period, there was a Nghe student going to Hanoi to take an exam. He wore an old brown outfit, sitting on wooden clogs at the front of the train to enjoy the cool air. The ticket inspector on the train asked: "Why are you sitting here? It's blocking the way." He replied: "I'm sitting to cool off." "Do you have a ticket?". He showed his ticket to Hanoi and was asked again: "What are you going to Hanoi for?" - "I'm going to take the Baccalaureate exam," he said, then showed his student card to the ticket inspector. The train conductor was bewildered by the poor student with a young face who dared to take the Baccalaureate exam. He whispered: "Please sit in the inner row." Nghe An is a land with a revolutionary tradition. Vinh is known as the "Red City." In making revolution, Nghe An cadres were also quite successful in terms of power and officialdom. Just one village, Quynh Doi, Quynh Luu, has gathered many talented people, rich in quantity and achieving quality. The tradition of a land influences and creates the tradition of a family. Many families in Nghe An belong to ancient families, with a long-standing genealogy passed down from father to son according to the same aspiration, a profession, a morality, a language. Many Nghe people, in addition to the common language of the community, also remember the local language. When meeting people from the same hometown, they have the opportunity to talk to each other comfortably and happily, their native language making the people around them bewildered and not understanding anything. During the years of the resistance war against America, along the Truong Son road, sometimes one could hear the chirping voices of Nghe An girls stationed at key points to protect the road.

Back to studying. Nowadays, Nghe An students are still talented but not as good as before. Some people commented that Nghe An is now famous for football and won all the youth, youth and professional football tournaments in one year. This city sometimes boils up in fierce matches. Vinh football field is called a "fire pan" and football teams from other provinces must have nerves of steel to survive and hope to win. There is a story that in a literature department at a university, a teacher asked the students during a fun time: Name 4 writers with the last name and middle name Nguyen Huy. Most students could only name 3: Nguyen Huy Tu, Nguyen Huy Tuong and Nguyen Huy Thiep, and Nguyen Huy Luong was missing. Please continue to name 4 famous writers who do not write. Many students were confused, but a student from Nghe An shouted: These 4 writers are from Vinh City. They are Mr. Van Si Chi and Mr. Van Si Hung, Van Si Thuy, and Van Si Son. That's right. It is difficult to predict what will rise and fall in a land over time and what traditions will decline. Education in Nghe An is flourishing again. Vinh University is a large university that is becoming more and more spacious and orderly. I have had the opportunity to teach and give talks at the literature departments of many schools in the Central region such as Hue University and Quy Nhon Pedagogical University. The schools are all very beautiful, emerging as the cultural centers of the city. At Vinh University, it seems that there has been a dress code for students on Monday mornings and holidays. Groups of female students in flowing white ao dai on campus make the scene more poetic, especially on days when the Lao wind blows. Over many periods, the quality of teaching and learning at the school has been maintained. The Faculty of Literature alone once had many excellent teachers gathered here, such as Professors Nguyen Dang Manh, Tran Dinh Su, Hoang Ngoc Hien, Nguyen Khac Phi, Luong Duy Thu, Phung Van Tuu... After the end of the war against America, most of them moved to Hanoi and became leading professors in many universities. When the bamboo grows old, new shoots grow, and a new generation continues the work of their predecessors. The Faculty of Literature currently has over 10 young PhDs who are still full of energy and ready to make breakthroughs in scientific research and training. The teachers are the guides and reliable lights for thousands of students of the faculty who are studying diligently day and night.

Vinh is also the junction of many traffic routes. At this midway point, visitors stop to rest on their journey from North to South. From Hue, the bus stops in Vinh to continue the next day. From Hanoi, the bus arrives in Vinh, which is almost the end of the journey. Vehicles from the mountains and forests also stop in Vinh before going to the South or the North. A transport official told me, "Vinh will be a tourist destination, but it is currently a stopover and rest stop for routes." There are nearly 50-60 large and small hotels in the entire city. The most luxurious are Kim Lien and Phuong Dong, three-star hotels. In addition, there are many mid-range hotels such as Huu Nghi, Viet-Lao Hotel, Binh Minh, Thanh Vinh, Thanh Binh... hotels with modest heights of 3 to 4 floors. Phuong Dong alone has 14 floors. Phuong Dong is located at the beginning of a boulevard next to the Central Park. From here, you can see the whole city. The 14th floor is a very convenient high point to see the scenery in all directions. Phuong Dong has arranged the 14th floor as a place to sell coffee and delicious teas. This interesting gathering place attracts too many guests. From early evening, groups of people, especially children, invite each other to go to the highest floor of Phuong Dong to see the city view. No need to drink coffee, just take the elevator up 14 floors and you will be satisfied. One group after another, bustling and noisy. The hotel had to move the coffee room to the 2nd floor and indeed only the real guests remained. Phuong Dong Hotel, like Kim Lien, has many beautiful rooms. Phuong Dong has welcomed the highest leaders of the Party and State and welcomed international guests to visit the city. I have also had the opportunity to stay at Phuong Dong Hotel a few times. The rooms are clean, quiet, and spacious, so you can work very late at night in the atmosphere of a study room.

Getting around the city is also convenient. The city has three taxi companies, plus motorbike taxis and cyclos, so there are few conflicts on the streets. It is also difficult to predict when traffic jams will occur in the city. The city is spread out in many directions.

Regarding cuisine, Nghe An people have their own taste. Poet Huy Can commented that Nghe An people eat a lot. "For hundreds of thousands of generations. Still love tomato sauce". Hanoi girls who marry Nghe An men often have two bowls of dipping sauce for each meal - fish sauce for the husband and a small bowl of vinegar for the wife. This situation can last for many years because once the taste for salty food is acquired, it becomes a lifelong habit. Perhaps the root of this habit is partly due to the long-standing poverty. Nowadays, the food in Vinh city has changed but still combines traditional and modern ways of eating. Nghe An shrimp paste and eggplant are still present in luxurious meals. Ngoc Chau restaurant is famous for its fish dishes. Pickled fish and grouper are arranged on the table next to the entrance for customers to choose on the spot. In the fish menu, steamed fish with pickled vegetables is the best. The fish is big, fragrant, and has the taste of rustic pickles, suitable for traditional tastes. In fact, it is also an enhanced dish of braised fish with pickles. Every Eastern country seems to have a traditional pickle that is very popular. Korea has kimchi, China has cala thau, Japan has a pickle that the writer DazaíOsmu described in his memory: “Delicious, so delicious. Once you get used to the deliciousness of pickled cabbage, you don’t like to eat other dishes anymore. Gotu kola, your teeth seem to grind together in response.” In Vietnam, jars of eggplant and pickles are strategic reserves for many families. Eel porridge shops are crowded with people. Nghe An eel is no different from eel in other countries, but there is a simple secret: the porridge is very hot, the rice is fragrant, the spices are appropriately spicy, and especially the porridge has less eel and more eel.

The food at the hotel also follows this principle. The deputy director of food and beverage at Phuong Dong Hotel told me that his hotel focuses on creating national specialties. The two dishes that guests love both have a traditional flavor combined with modernity: lotus leaf rice and roasted veal. Lotus leaf rice is made from delicious rice cooked until soft and fluffy. The spices include fried onions, sesame salt, steamed lotus seeds with eggs, chopped pork, and a little sausage and Chinese sausage. The important thing is the appropriate dosage of the ingredients. All are wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed until just hot enough for guests to eat. The roasted veal dish is more elaborate. You have to choose a fresh young veal weighing several kilos and soak it in beer for a few hours. Then take it out and drain, marinate it with aromatic spices and herbs, and grill it over hot coals. You have to pay attention to the grilling technique, while it is hot, brush fat over the fire to make it crispy, but not dry, the meat is still soft, fresh and fragrant. I asked: Is that similar to Western steak? No, it is a national specialty, probably more delicious and interesting.

Coming to Vinh, it is easy to see that the city is developing. Vinh will become a city of tourist routes. From Vinh, you can go to Cua Lo, an increasingly popular resort. The beach stretches for dozens of kilometers, with fine white sand, clear water, and cheap food, like a warm invitation. From Vinh, you can visit Uncle Ho's hometown Sen, a sacred land that attracts the minds and hearts of many people in the country. The motto "A hundred hearings are not as good as one seeing" will be very effective when you return to Uncle Ho's hometown to visit his childhood thatched house, to visit the simple village that has produced virtuous people for the country. Within a radius of fifteen to twenty kilometers, Vinh is adjacent to many attractive tourist areas. When visiting Vinh, Professor Laszlo Sjoreyi, Director of the Hungarian Literature Institute, commented: "Vinh is a beautiful city, with open spaces, wide sidewalks, and dynamic traffic routes. This city is rich in potential". And he wants to visit the hometown of the author of the Tale of Kieu, a book that has been translated into Hungarian by Associate Professor Truong Dang Dung. Coming to Nguyen Du's hometown, he commented: "The scenery in the Tale of Kieu has many features of Nguyen Du's hometown, from the beach, sand dunes to the evening scenery of the countryside. The Vietnamese homeland has a fairy-tale beauty."

Vinh is a young city. Most of the three hundred thousand people are young citizens. They are students, workers, traders... The city already has many medium-sized factories, such as shipyards, wood factories, oil refineries, cement factories... More projects and factories need to be invested in Vinh to become an industrial city tomorrow. In the early morning, going from Vinh city to Cua Lo, you can still swim in the morning light. This city with rich potential, lots of light and wind always makes people think forward, think about the future.

Professor: Ha Minh Duc -Photo: PV