Bich Tru village in Thai Thinh commune, Hoa Binh city, offers visitors a great opportunity to explore a typical Muong village with beautiful landscape, cultural identities and local people’s hospitality.
Some households in Bich Tru village provide homestay services to tap the potential of the locality.
With the construction of the Hoa Binh reservoir, Bich Tru village lost almost all of its arable land. Villagers have shifted to aquaculture and fishing for a living. They have also started tourism to take advantage of the local natural landscapes and traditional culture. Currently, 53 households in the village have 167 fishing cages and four households have engaged in tourism in combination with aquaculture.
It only takes 20 minutes by boat or road to travel from Hoa Binh city’s centre to Bich Tru village. Typical features of Muong village can be found in Bich Tru village, especially stilt houses.
A villager, Bui Van Chuc, said that to protect the forest, his village has long stopped building wooden stilt houses. They switched to building concrete stilt houses which are both solid and airy. In particular, livestock barns are now moved away from the houses to ensure a hygienic environment.
Not only preserving the stilt houses, Bich Tru villagers also keep many customs, which give the village a unique charm.
Women in the village still wear the traditional costumes on holidays and New Year celebrations. In addition, villagers have established a team to practice ancient gong and other traditional songs or dances. They usually perform the songs and dances during holidays and festivals.
Tran Van Doan, head of Bich Tru village, said that local authorities have always urged locals to keep the village clean and green to attract tourists.
Visitors to the village can explore the village by bicycles, climb mountains, go fishing and try local dishes made in Muong style.
Ha Van Thiem, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Binh commune, said that seeing the village’s advantages of natural landscape, the local authority aims to turn Bich Tru into a tourism destination.
The commune has supported households to invest in developing unique tourism products and cooperate with villages of Da Bac district to create attractive tourist routes in the Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant’s reservoir area.
Hoa Binh has taken measures, focusing on removing barriers in terms of mechanism, policy, infrastructure, and upgrading technical infrastructure facilities serving tourism and the quality of human resources, to promote tourism development in the Hoa Binh Lake area.
Over the past time, Da Bac has deployed measures to lure more domestic and foreign visitors to the locality, aiming to turn tourism into the district’s economic spearhead.
Covering an area of over 52,000 hectares spanning districts of Mai Chau, Tan Lac, Cao Phong, Da Bac, and Hoa Binh City, Hoa Binh lake has strong potential for tourism development. In recent years, thanks to the attention of local Party Committees and authorities as well as support from international organisations, the advantages of tourism in the lake area have been utilised.
Mai Chau is a mountainous district and home to many ethnic groups such as Thai, Muong, Kinh, Mong, Dao, and Tay with distinctive cultural identities, creating a diverse and unique cultural treasure. Aware of its advantages, the district has paid attention to the preservation and promotion of ethnic groups’ cultural values so that culture will become a leverage for tourism and contribute to socio-economic development and life quality improvement.
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