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| Hoang Mai town seen from above. Photo: Nhat Thanh |
RICH IN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SEDIMENTS
Hoang Mai is the northern gateway of Nghe An province; located about 220km south of Hanoi. The town is the intersection between the two largest cities of the North Central region, Thanh Hoa City and Vinh City. If Nghe An is a miniature image of Vietnam, Hoang Mai is a miniature image of Nghe An: This place converges all three ecological regions of the province: sea - plain - mountains and forests; The town has the North-South arterial road - National Highway 1 running through it; and is also silted up by the winding green Mai Giang River... All of these have created for Hoang Mai rich and charming villages and streets. On a national scale, there are few localities that carry within themselves so many imprints of geographical location and special and unique scenery.
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| Con Temple Festival at night. Photo: Nghe An Department of Tourism |
Hoang Mai town is very "rich" in historical and cultural values, with 75 historical and cultural relics and scenic spots, nearly 80 intangible heritage values that have been researched, managed and ranked (including 6 national relics, 7 provincial relics). These include: Con Temple (Quynh Phuong ward - considered the most sacred place in Nghe An); Vuu Temple (Quynh Vinh commune) worships Uy Minh Vuong Ly Nhat Quang; Xuan Uc Temple (Quynh Lien commune) worships General Dang Te; Xuan Hoa Temple (Quynh Xuan commune) worships Cao Son Cao Cac; Phung Hung Temple (Quynh Xuan commune) worships Phung Hung, Phuong Dung Princess, Bach Y Princess, Uyen Hoa Princess... |
| Rocket Cave - evidence of the sacrifice of 33 youth volunteers in the railway industry. Photo by Thanh Chung |
In that rich and diverse system of relics, the most prominent is the Le Canal - the canal connecting the capital Hoa Lu to Deo Ngang. This river is considered the first waterway in Vietnamese history, dug during the reign of King Le Hoan to transport military provisions to the south of Dai Co Viet with the aim of expanding the territory and developing the country's agriculture. Later, it was used by our army and people in the resistance war against the US. Currently, many sections of the river have been recognized as national waterways and the Le Canal in Nghe An is ranked as a national monument. |
| Boat racing at Con Temple festival. Photo: Nghe An Department of Tourism |
Besides the Le Canal, Hoang Mai town also has a very important historical relic in the history of building and defending the nation, which is the Rocket Cave - a testament to the sacrifice of 33 youth volunteers of the railway industry in the resistance war against the US to save the country; a tangible epic about a time of bullets, bombs, smoke and fire in a land still considered the fence of the Fatherland, of a period of "Quynh Luu battlefield/Mai Giang blood red...", "the road was not yet cleared, but blood and bones were not spared...".Besides the relics, Hoang Mai is “dense” with folk cultural values which are specifically expressed through attractive traditional festivals that attract tourists. The most prominent is the Con Temple Festival (recognized as a national intangible heritage in 2016) associated with the Con Temple relic cluster.
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| The palanquin runs to Cau Ngu bridge. Photo: Nhat Thanh |
This is the largest, most ancient, most unique and longest-running festival compared to other festivals in Nghe An. Coming to Con Temple Festival in early Spring, visitors can admire the temple relic with architectural value, ranked as the most famous landscape in Nghe An; participate in many traditional folk cultural activities that have been restored such as betel offering ceremony, buffalo offering ceremony, cake offering ceremony, elephant and horse procession, female mandarin offering ceremony, vomit running custom....RICH SCENERY AND SPECIALTIES
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| Vuc Mau Lake Ecotourism. Photo: Nghe An Department of Tourism |
In addition to being "rich" in historical and cultural values, Hoang Mai is also blessed by nature with many rare and beautiful landscapes where mountains meet the sea; rivers surround the city; green forests reflect on the lake surface... With overlapping mountains, immense lakes, and vast seas, Hoang Mai also has a soft river - the Mai Giang river surrounding it, flowing into the sea through two estuaries that have been and are creating conditions for the town to build and develop a fishing port in Quynh Phuong ward and Dong Hoi port that has been invested in and is about to be put into operation. |
| Afternoon at Dong Hoi Port. Photo: Nhat Thanh |
Speaking specifically about fishing ports, Hoang Mai fishing ports are the source of nearly 40% of seafood for the entire Nghe An province and neighboring localities. Enjoying Hoang Mai seafood, any diner will be amazed by the delicious freshness of shrimp, crab, squid, grouper, mackerel, mullet, scad, blood cockles... These seafood, along with other local specialties such as Quynh village wine, Quynh Di fish sauce, and Lang leaf soup, have made Hoang Mai famous as a promised land that everyone should come to "pray, love and enjoy the cuisine". |
| Quynh Phuong's fish grilling profession. Photo: Canh Hung |
Coming to Hoang Mai past and present, surely everyone can clearly feel the profound human values so that when they go far away, they will always remember. Here, people are industrious, hard-working, and live to love. Traditional craft villages such as Quynh Lap boat building village, Quynh Phuong seafood processing village, Quynh Di anchovy fish sauce, Quynh Lien clean vegetables... are the places that fully demonstrate those values.TURNING POTENTIAL INTO ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY
It can be said that Hoang Mai has all the elements to develop spiritual tourism, cultural tourism, eco-tourism, sea tourism, craft village tourism... Good wine needs no bush, every year, tens of thousands of tourists come to the town to visit, explore and relax.
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| Clean vegetable production in Hoang Mai. Photo: Document |
Fully aware of its potentials and advantages, over the years, Hoang Mai town has not only proposed solutions to turn these potential values into practical socio-economic effects. Accordingly, the town has continuously deployed and completed infrastructure and tourism infrastructure in a synchronous manner; promoted the development of services, trade, transportation, food and beverage, motels, hotels, healthcare, post and telecommunications, banking... of the town to meet the needs of tourists. |
| Sunlight rises in the fishing village. Photo: Canh Hung |
Up to now, the town has had 19 tourist accommodation establishments, including 1 3-star hotel and 1 4-star hotel complex; 4 mini supermarkets and many restaurants in the coastal tourist area with a total investment of over 500 billion VND. Recently, the town and the Vietnam Market Development and Management Cooperative Union started construction of a Trade Center combined with a traditional market in Quynh Thien ward, with a total investment of over 150 billion VND.Exploiting the available potential, in recent times, Hoang Mai has also continuously researched and developed new tourism products with unique characteristics such as scuba diving, fishing, squid fishing at sea, on lakes, river cruises... The town has also been combining sea tourism, eco-tourism with spiritual culture to create colorful tours, connecting the town's own "cultural specialties".
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| Hoang Mai on the day of the Con Temple folk festival. Photo: Canh Hung |
In the new vision for town development 2020 - 2025, Hoang Mai is oriented by Nghe An province to become a coastal city associated with tourism, services, trade, education, health, finance, banking... The town has been promoting development in this direction, with solutions to attract and call for investment, and increase maximum development support for businesses and investors, especially investment in tourism. Certainly, with support solutions, Hoang Mai is a promised land for investors to explore and create, helping Hoang Mai soon become a tourism development city, a cultural and economic center in the central part of Nghe An, in line with its goals and available potential./.
