Preserving and promoting heritage values in Uong Bi City

Cultural heritage is a powerful endogenous resource in the socio -economic development of Uong Bi City in the future. Therefore, the preservation and promotion of heritage values have been given special attention by the city.

Ancient Buddha statue found in Phuong Dong ward.

Uong Bi City currently has 31 historical sites, including 2 special national historical sites, 7 provincial-level historical sites, and 22 sites included in the inventory and classification. These sites are all associated with unique festivals, reflecting the rich cultural identity of the local people. The city has 32 intangible cultural heritage items in 6 categories: 8 social custom heritages, 6 folk performing arts heritages, 5 traditional festival heritages, 5 folk literary heritages, 7 folk knowledge heritages, and 1 spoken and written language heritage.

In recent years, the preservation and promotion of Uong Bi's cultural heritage has been concretized with comprehensive and synchronized action plans and programs focusing on the culture and people of Uong Bi, with an overall goal, 18 specific targets, and 5 groups of tasks and solutions. These include specific targets and solutions for preserving, restoring, and promoting the value of cultural heritage in Uong Bi, including architectural works and landscapes reflecting traditional and distinctive cultural characteristics.

The city has always paid close attention to and prioritized the process of compiling dossiers for the ranking of historical relics. The preservation and promotion of cultural heritage values have been a priority for Party committees and authorities at all levels; they have coordinated the preparation of scientific dossiers for the Yen Tu Complex of Historical Sites and Scenic Spots, a typical cultural heritage site, to be submitted to UNESCO for recognition as a World Heritage Site.

The city has always been concerned with preserving certain forms of intangible cultural heritage, restoring and developing distinctive traditional cultural and artistic forms, and the cultures of ethnic minorities; and restoring historical and cultural relics to serve traditional education and economic development.

The large inscription — The three characters "Bão Phúc Nham" at the Hang Son relic site were carved by King Trần Hiến Tông during a trip in September 1329.

The city also focuses on restoring, preserving, and promoting the value of historical relics in accordance with the Law on Cultural Heritage. With funding from the state budget and social contributions, Uong Bi has undertaken the restoration and prevention of degradation of most historical relics in the area; collected, preserved, and promoted the value of treasures, antiques, and ancient artifacts; called for and attracted businesses to invest in infrastructure development within the relic sites; researched and planned the conservation, restoration, and upgrading of the architecture and landscape of several villages with unique traditional ethnic cultural identities to become "living museums"; and researched and effectively applied policies from higher levels to support and encourage the activities and development of folk culture clubs.

Uong Bi City also focuses on training human resources to enhance the application of digital transformation with big data technologies, artificial intelligence, and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) in the conservation, restoration, and promotion of local cultural heritage in the context of integration. The city has built a dedicated website for the Yen Tu historical site, implemented the "Application of Information Technology in the Management and Promotion of the Yen Tu Historical Site" project, and digitized 3D cultural spaces, relics, and artifacts in Yen Tu, allowing visitors to easily learn about cultural spaces and artifacts in a virtual environment before visiting.

Traditional art performances are held for pilgrims visiting Yen Tu.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Dang Van Bai, Vice Chairman of the National Council for Cultural Heritage, Uong Bi City needs inter-regional and inter-provincial cooperation to build a chain of spiritual tourism products. To develop spiritual tourism, Uong Bi City must inevitably build comprehensive, interdisciplinary projects (with heritage and tourism as the main focus) to create complete, attractive tourism products with high commercial value, sellable repeatedly to many people at high prices. The central core of Uong Bi's spiritual tourism tours, routes, and destinations is the Yen Tu Historical and Scenic Site. However, this site is only one of four important components that make up the Yen Tu Historical and Scenic Site Complex (Quang Ninh), Vinh Nghiem (Bac Giang), and Con Son - Kiet Bac (Hai Duong). Therefore, inter-regional and inter-provincial cooperation to develop a chain of spiritual tourism products to fully utilize the potential and resources of a future world cultural heritage site is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed.

In the coming period, Uong Bi City needs to coordinate with the Department of Culture and Sports and the Quang Ninh Museum to review and conduct a comprehensive inventory of historical and cultural relics, preserve, restore, and promote the value of the system of historical and cultural relics and scenic spots, and build scientific dossiers on the relics with the participation of experts in the fields of architecture, history, archaeology, and Han Nom (classical Chinese and Vietnamese script)... Priority should be given to investing in the preservation and restoration of relics classified as special national relics, such as the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen sect relics, the Den Cong communal house (part of the Bach Dang 1288 victory historical relic site); followed by relics such as the Ho Chi Minh Memorial Area commemorating President Ho Chi Minh's visit to Uong Bi in 1965, religious and belief relics that have deteriorated or been damaged (such as Tu Phu Temple, Vong Shrine, Bi Trung Pagoda in Vang Danh ward, Lang Temple in Quang Trung ward) and revolutionary historical relics.

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