Binh Lieu - where the sun is very gentle

Binh Lieu is a poor border district in the East of Quang Ninh province, more than 100 km from the center of Ha Long city with nearly 50 km of border with China. Different from the lavish splendor in the city, Binh Lieu has a wild, simple beauty because it is protected by majestic mountains, dreamy waterfalls, clouds drifting through small stilt houses or lingering over golden terraced fields, making the beauty of Binh Lieu appear like a painting.

Go to Binh Lieu to drink wine and sing Pa Dung

People say that the best time to visit Binh Lieu is in September and October because the maple leaves are bright red, the roadsides are covered with white reeds, sparkling in the sun, and the ripe rice is like gold on the terraced fields... December, January, and February are freezing cold but have many festivals.

Thanh, the owner of a lovely homestay in Binh Lieu, is proud: Binh Lieu has a different beauty in each season. And: "The most beautiful time is when you set foot in Binh Lieu".

Binh Lieu welcomed me on a day with golden sunshine like honey. The road to this remote border area is very beautiful, some sections along the coast, some winding along the cliffs, between two rows of immense casuarinas that captivate people's hearts. In the distance are the red-leafed trees. All along the way, I could only praise and praise: Quang Ninh is so blessed by nature!

Binh Lieu now has many farmstays and homestays. I stayed at Thanh's farmstay. It was a small, pretty place, located on the edge of a cliff, with about 10 comfortable rooms, a BBQ yard, a campfire area, and especially lots of roses, purple sim flowers, and peach blossoms. The early morning was cold, but looking at the mountainside covered in a layer of gentle, radiant yellow sunlight, I felt like I was in Switzerland, like the scenery seen in movies. The thin smoke rising from my cup of coffee made me feel like time was passing very slowly.

Binh Lieu district has many ethnic groups living together, of which the three ethnic groups Tay, San Chi and Dao are the most populous, Kinh people make up about 5% of the population, in addition there are Chinese people, Nung people... Tay people are studious and pursue education, San Chi people are hard-working, skillful, famous for making dong vermicelli and... women's soccer. Dao people are very "gentle" (Thanh said).

They do not like to compete, so they find the highest mountain to live on. The agricultural economy in Binh Lieu mainly comes from star anise and cinnamon trees, which are grown by the Dao people. They are not poor, every house has a garden of star anise, cinnamon, rice fields, buffaloes and cows... but their life is simple, mainly self-sufficient, they do not want to compete with anyone, so the high, deserted mountain is their sky.

While visiting, I asked Ha, a Tay ethnic man, a doctor and weekend tour guide, who lives in Binh Lieu town: Do you have an anise or cinnamon garden? Ha said no. Only the Dao people grow cinnamon and anise. I asked again: Then we can buy them. Oh no, they don't sell them, they just keep them for their own use.

That afternoon, the day I arrived at Thanh's farmstay, it was already dark when I arrived. After dropping off my luggage, Thanh told her sisters to go to Mr. Say's house for dinner. Thanh said that Mr. Say's family was from the Dao Thanh Phan ethnic group, Thanh's neighbor. Thanh and her friends rented land from them, and then they worked for the farmstay. Whenever they had guests, their house was also a place that guests loved to come to experience the local culture.

Because we had been informed in advance, when my friends and I arrived, Mr. Say's family was cooking. Some people were cooking duck, chicken, slicing meat, and stir-frying vegetables. By the big, blazing fire, Mrs. Say was watching the pot of braised meat. She looked gentle, kind, and quiet. She just listened quietly and smiled. In the red-hot fire full of coals, she had buried some cassava (noodles) for a long time. She waited for us to sit down, warmed her hands, and then broke the roasted cassava, gently saying: Eat cassava, it's delicious.

It was 0 degrees outside but the small kitchen was very warm. I ate cassava while watching Mr. Say's family prepare dinner, thinking I was lost in Ma Van Khang's novel "White Silver Coins with Open Flowers" or Duong Thu Huong's "Journey of Childhood".

I was not used to eating Mr. Say's food because it had a lot of meat and fat. That's right, they live in the highlands, the weather is cold so they have to eat a lot of fat and protein to endure. In addition, their meals must have wine. Homemade wine. The specialty that served my sisters and I that day was goose cooked in wine. Clean the goose, stir-fry it, add spices to taste and then pour about 1 liter of wine into the pot, simmer until there is just enough water.

This dish is unique and quite delicious. The broth has the fatty taste of meat, the richness of spices, and especially the hot and spicy taste of ginger mixed with the spicy and sweet taste of rice wine. Drink a cup, the heat rises, the feeling of lightness and fatigue disappears.

Mr. Say’s family drank a lot of wine but it was not noisy. They laughed, talked, and were also mischievous, but there was no “cheer up, cheers” or handshakes like in the lowlands. In the middle of the drink, while tipsy, I sang them the folk song “Vam Co Dong”, after which Mr. Say also sang “Pa Dung”, a folk song of the Dao people. I did not understand the content, only felt the melody was sad but profound.

Mr. Say explained the content of the song: if a flower is beautiful and fragrant, people will love it, if a person is beautiful and good, people will love it... After singing, the whole family drank wine. It seemed that only Mrs. Say did not drink. She sat silently next to her husband, listening to him sing, talk and laugh. Occasionally she stood up to get food. Just that, but looking at Mr. Say's eyes with his wife, you could tell that she was his own "beautiful, fragrant flower".

When we returned, the sound of pa dung singing and laughter still echoed in the wind. Thanh said: They drank until late at night. However, the next morning they still worked as usual. Great!

The A May girls have no eyebrows and no hair.

Mr. Say's family has three women, including his wife, and all three are named May. Hai, a guy who graduated in electronics and telecommunications but put his engineering degree in the closet to go to Binh Lieu to grow old roses, said: now if you go to a three-way intersection and call out: "A May", two-thirds of the women in the village will run out. I was surprised: Huh, is that name special? Hai didn't know either, he just guessed that it must be a beautiful name, like the name Mai in the lowlands.

The A May women, when they are wives, do not have eyebrows or hair. When I read stories about the highlands in the past, I also knew about this custom, so I was not too surprised, and even found it beautiful. The old story tells that, a long time ago, there was a Dao ethnic woman who cooked rice for her husband. She did not know that there was hair in the bowl of rice, causing her husband to eat and get it stuck in his throat. The wife was very sorry, so she shaved her hair and eyebrows to clean up and not get in the way when cooking. The Thanh Phan Dao ethnic women in Binh Lieu wear mainly red clothes, with a red square box on their heads, always busy cooking, serving food to guests, and attentively inviting their husbands with a smile always on their lips.

On the dinner table, they sat next to their husbands, laughing, joking, and drinking wine. Hai boasted: Oh my gosh, those ladies drink a lot! Tomorrow is the market, you go there and see, it's so much fun. Indeed, going to Dong Van market for a day, seeing the A May ladies, whether old or young, is really interesting. The market is not only for buying and selling but also for dating and drinking. In small restaurants, every restaurant has tables of ladies and mothers, carefree and refreshing. The Dao people are not constrained by common stereotypes, for example, once a year they have a love market. On that day, people who used to belong to each other find each other and fall in love. Just one day and then everyone goes home. The remaining 364 days are for the present and the future.

I really like the way Mr. Say looks at his wife. Gentle and respectful. Thanh whispered: here men really value their wives. I asked Ha: in our area, is there any case of husbands abusing their wives? Ha smiled: very rare, getting a wife is not easy, you have to have a dowry, you have to prepare a feast... And the wife also has a hard life, she has to cook in the morning, clean up and so on. We have to love her.

Oh, everywhere there are women who love their husbands and take care of their children, but not everywhere are women treated comfortably and looked at with respect by their husbands like the A May girls I saw in Binh Lieu.

We stopped by Dong Van market to visit and eat stir-fried pho, a culinary specialty of Binh Lieu people (when Thanh said that tomorrow after visiting the dinosaur spine, we would go to Dong Van market, I wondered "I thought Dong Van was in Ha Giang", it turns out, many localities have "Dong Van market", but why, I have not yet found out). Dong Van market in Binh Lieu is also a place where the Hoa, Dao, Tay, San Diu, Kinh... ethnic groups trade and exchange. Luckily, the day I went was Saturday, Sunday so it was the weekend market.

Even though it was a market, it closed at noon. At that time, the sellers stopped calling out to each other, and the buyers stopped bargaining. Looking around, I thought, they must have spent their time on other things, more interesting than making money. For example, the woman selling clothes was playing the guitar with her eyes closed, absorbed in not caring about anyone passing by. Only when I clapped my hands and praised her did she open her eyes, smile, thank her, and continue playing.

The “stage” of the late market is probably for those who seek joy, or forgetfulness, or neither remember nor forget, because many people gather to drink, laugh and talk happily, or sit alone, or… walk and drink. Here and there are also drunken husbands staggering and their wives patiently following behind. There are also men staggering back, one foot kicking the other, I look around and don’t see their wives. Ha laughs: she must have gone drinking too. Maybe so because in the stir-fried pho restaurants, every restaurant has a table of women sitting and drinking.

Some people blame me for telling stories about women sitting in bars and tea shops (?!). However, everyone has their own perspective and point of view. I like to see my A May girls drinking wine in a refreshing and confident manner. How many people have the kind of confidence of a truly free soul?

And the flower of the apple tree - simple petals but full of energy

Since returning from Binh Lieu, I have shared many stories, but I have never told the story about the flowers of the So flower. But in my mind, every time I think of Binh Lieu, that beautiful and poetic land, the image of a white flower with yellow pistil and a gentle fragrance appears. So flower usually blooms in December, in the season when the wind blows. At that time, on the hillsides, along the roads are endless So flowers. So flowers are not brilliant, splendid but simple to the point of heartbreaking, making people who once fall in love find it hard to forget; like the people of Binh Lieu, simple, honest and full of vitality, making people who once know them cannot help but admire them.

The beauty of the flower is not only in its color or fragrance but also in its inner value. The tree has many uses. The seeds of the tree are used to press oil. According to documents, the oil of the tree contains many good nutrients, anti-cancer, reduces fat and increases the resistance of the human body. The content and quality of the oil of Binh Lieu varieties of the tree are highly appreciated, especially the content of Omega 3, 6, 9 is equivalent to olive oil. In addition, it is also an important raw material in industry such as making machine oil, lubricants, anti-rust oil, printing oil and oil used in medicine.

Other parts of the plant also have many uses such as the roots are used to treat acute pharyngitis, stomachache, and sprains. The roots and bark are used to treat leg fractures and sprains. Dried bark is used as fuel, activated carbon, and the residue after pressing for crude oil is used to clean shrimp ponds, produce pesticides, and make fertilizer.

Along with star anise and cinnamon, the oil of the So flower brings a significant source of income to the people. A liter of oil of the So flower is currently about four hundred thousand. Not only that, the value of the So flower is also enhanced by the local government when organizing the So flower festival, usually in December, both to honor the value of the So flower and to promote local tourism. On the festival day, visitors immerse themselves in the sea of snow-white So flowers, watch ethnic girls wearing their most beautiful costumes, admire and take pictures with the flowers and experience cultural activities, arts, folk games, exhibitions, and local cuisine.

I must say that I really admire the way the Binh Lieu government in particular and Quang Ninh in general do tourism when each local strength is effectively exploited. Coming to Binh Lieu now, there are festivals almost all year round. Besides the four big festivals such as the So flower festival, the Kien Gio festival, the Soong Co festival, the Luc Na communal house festival, there are also the Golden Harvest festival, the first birthday festival...

Not to mention, they also regularly organize competitions such as women's football of the San Chi ethnic group, running competition on the "dinosaur's back", weekend markets... Each festival focuses on promoting the unique cultural values of the locality, thanks to which, not only are the cultural values preserved but they are also exploited to the maximum, attracting more and more tourists to Binh Lieu, thereby improving the economic life of the people and making Binh Lieu's mark increasingly clear on the world tourism map.

A story that not every locality can do!

Thanh Nam

Source: https://baotayninh.vn/binh-lieu-noi-nang-rat-diu-dang-a191688.html