Awakening the waterway tourism of Dat Cang: Attractive from new tourism products

The city has the largest river density in the North.

In addition to the Tam Bac River, which is used in poetry, music and paintings and is a bustling old trading port in the heart of the city, most of Hai Phong people grew up next to rivers, with the largest river density in the North, rivers surrounding every neighborhood and village. However, many leading experts and cultural figures have been full of regret that waterway tourism in the Port City has only recently been gradually "awakened"...

Located in the downstream area of ​​the Thai Binh River system flowing into the sea, since ancient times, Hai Phong has been a fertile land with abundant fresh water for residents to live. The city has more than 50 large and small rivers, including 16 main rivers with a total length of over 300km with famous names such as: Da Bac-Bach Dang River, Cam River, Lach Tray River, Van Uc River, Thai Binh River...

At the same time, the rivers in Hai Phong are all "witnesses" to the history, culture and economy of the city. In the past, female general Le Chan chose the fertile alluvial land along the riverbank to reclaim and establish a village. Among them, Bach Dang Giang is a legendary, sacred and heroic river of Vietnam, the place associated with 3 famous battles: "Giang san vuong khi Bach Dang thu" (The sacred air of the mountains and rivers remains in Bach Dang)... If in 938, Bach Dang river and the wooden stake battle are forever famous with the victory of King Ngo Quyen ending the domination of the North. Also on that river, once again in 1288, the king and his subjects of the Tran dynasty conducted the largest naval battle in history to repel the Yuan-Mongol army.

And the Cam River, starting from the simple but bustling Ninh Hai wharf, has now become a river flowing along the large and modern seaport system. The Cam River is a symbol of the harmony between the past, present and the bright future of the city. The three river landscape corridors: Cam River, Lach Tray River and Van Uc River will be the economic and service development corridors, and at the same time, the focus of Hai Phong river tourism development...

Remember, in the golden age of the early last century, in the heart of the old town, the image of Tam Bac street reflecting itself on the river made the hearts of many generations of artists flutter. The paintings of the river and Tam Bac street have created a unique and very characteristic perspective for Hai Phong, considered the Seine of the Port City. The development history of most cities in the world is associated with rivers. In Vietnam, the river next to the sea, carrying the vitality and history of the heroic city of the sea, converging diverse residents and merchants is Tam Bac of the Port City of Hai Phong.

Tam Bac is 11 km long, 80 m wide on average, and over 3 m deep on average, a branch of Lach Tray River. Starting from Tam Bac village, An Duong district, it flows into Cam River at Ninh Hai estuary. The river is named after the village at its source. "Tram Bac" means a deep river basin where boats are anchored. Before the end of the 19th century, this was an important traffic route. Tam Bac River was the first favorable location for investment and trade with foreign countries: Chinese, French, Spanish, British...

Tam Bac is beautiful in the sense of being the flow of Hai Phong's soul, as People's Artist Dao Trong Khanh, a documentary film director, wrote in an essay, Entering the Soul of Tam Bac, which permeates the minds of not only Hai Phong people: "Tam Bac is a river flowing from the heart of the city. To me, it is a giant screen carrying the landscapes and people of Hai Phong from generation to generation like an endless film. Sometimes, when the earth and sky are silent, the river is like a slow-motion film, flowing back to ancient times, where the river's name originates from the name of a small village at its source, Tram Bac village, with a deep bay, undulating masts"...

Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai, Director of Hai Phong Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism co-chaired the Workshop "Developing Waterway Tourism in Hai Phong"

The rivers will tell stories of the estuary

In the coming years, Hai Phong tourism is oriented to develop into a truly spearhead economic sector, one of three strategic breakthroughs for the city's socio-economic development. Developing river tourism associated with island resort tourism products, discovery tourism, cultural and ecological experiences will be a priority in the Hai Phong Tourism Development Strategy to 2030...

At the recent workshop on Developing Waterway Tourism in Hai Phong, Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong shared: Hai Phong has a dense river network, the largest river density in the North, rivers surround each neighborhood, each village. Therefore, Hai Phong is called the City of Rivers, the City of Bridges. These rivers not only carry many cultural and historical values ​​but also play an important role in the socio-economic development of the city.

However, with such favorable river conditions, Hai Phong currently does not have river tours but only passenger transport by river and some spontaneous tourism activities. Currently, Vingroup has invested in Vu Yen marina, but the scale is still small and mainly serves Vinhome residents. Some routes have not been dredged regularly, leading to sedimentation, affecting the circulation of tourist vehicles.

Looking at the reality, Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai said that waterway tourism in Hai Phong has not developed cultural, historical, religious, community, ecological, and riverside entertainment experiences. River tourism not only takes place on the river but also along the river, planning and developing discovery and experience points will create attraction for tourists. According to Ms. Mai, it is impossible to develop river tourism with the current state of waterway infrastructure. Developing river tourism in Hai Phong has not been taken seriously, there is no strategy, planning and synchronous plan. Current river tourism activities are very small, scattered, spontaneous, fragmented, leading to ineffective exploitation, poor services, and not creating attraction for tourists.

The river landscape for tourism development has not been properly invested in, there is no artistic lighting system along the river, there is still a lot of trash and duckweed on the river, the riverside landscape is sometimes shabby and dirty...

Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai expressed that developing waterway tourism is a difficult problem, requiring multi-sectoral coordination and long-term investment. However, with the great potential of nature, culture and history, if there is the right direction and the companionship of experts and businesses, Hai Phong's rivers can completely become unique destinations, bringing sustainable economic value to the city.

Ms. Mai emphasized that Hai Phong needs to soon issue a set of quality standards and licensing mechanisms for water tourism vehicles, and organize regular inspections in a professional, friendly and safe manner. At the same time, the city must strengthen pollution control, wastewater treatment, riverside garbage collection and tree planting to protect the banks. Because not just a means of transportation, each river must become a vivid tourism product, telling its own story, closely linked to local experiences and identities...

In the world, there are many large cities with modern urban areas, but the cities that leave a captivating impression always have poetic rivers such as the Venice River (Italy), St. Petersburg (Russia), Paris (France), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bangkok (Thailand) or in Vietnam, there is the Perfume River in Hue or the Han River in Da Nang.

Bach Dang River.

Sharing the same view, Associate Professor Dr. Duong Van Sau, a tourism expert from Hanoi University of Culture, emphasized that Hai Phong has natural and cultural conditions suitable for developing waterway tourism, from inner-city river routes to island routes. However, he also pointed out many challenges, especially in terms of infrastructure, ports, means of transport and the unsynchronized support service system. He proposed a series of solutions such as investing in upgrading existing wharves (Ben Binh, Ben Tam Bac, Do Son). At the same time, expanding the capacity to receive cruise ships in Cat Ba and Dinh Vu, and building typical tourism products such as cruise tours on the Cam River, experiencing fishing villages, or exploring the mangrove ecosystem and waterfowl.

Mr. Nguyen Quy Phuong, representative of the National Tourism Administration, emphasized the importance of developing products according to thematic topics: history - origin, culture - experience, ecology - resort. Some proposed waterway tourism routes include the inner-city route connecting Cam River - Lach Tray - Tam Bac, the inter-provincial route Hai Phong - Yen Tu - Ha Long, and the island route from Cat Ba, Do Son combined with sunset tour and night squid fishing.

Mr. Phuong also proposed promoting digital transformation in promotion such as building digital maps of river routes, standard explanations and comprehensive digital marketing campaigns before, during and after the trip.

Expectations to elevate national and international tourism positioning

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Investment Director, Sao Do Group Joint Stock Company, said that Hai Phong needs to soon develop and promulgate a Project on developing waterway tourism in Hai Phong as a basis for attracting resources to develop waterway tourism, especially from the private sector, while creating peace of mind for investors when investing in this field. In addition, the city also needs to plan and invest in specialized marinas in suitable areas of Lan Ha Bay and Cam River, with other synchronous technical infrastructure items such as rest stops, resting areas, shopping areas and tourist information centers.

To develop unique tourism products of Hai Phong, the city will have to research and open river-sea tourism routes connecting the historic inner city with the world natural heritage of Cat Ba Archipelago. At the same time, open river tourism routes connecting cultural and historical destinations of Hai Phong and connecting the heritages of the Red River civilization.

At the same time, build international-class shows on the river, design ships with Hai Phong characteristics and suitable for each type of tourism, improve service quality, so that each Hai Phong river will tell a historical story, full of cultural values ​​and surrounded by unique landscapes and ecosystems. At that time, river tourism products will create a difference and attract tourists.

Next is strengthening regional connectivity. Hai Phong has 16 national inland waterways. From Hai Phong, cruise ships can travel to most localities in the Northern key economic region: Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Hanoi, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thai Binh, Viet Tri. Strengthening regional connectivity, building inter-regional tours, and combining visits to many locations on the same river route will help tourists have a richer experience...

With the goal of making river tourism a key product of international standards, according to Mr. Duong Duc Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong, it is necessary to first build 3 modern, convenient, convenient, international-standard wharves in the area of ​​Hoang Dieu Port, Ben Got (Dong Bai), Cat Ba Bay and a number of national-standard inland waterway wharves at riverside destinations, prioritizing the construction of wharves on Thai River next to the Bach Dang Giang relic site...

Hai Phong has a rich river system, more than 50 large and small rivers and 16 main rivers.

Accordingly, it is necessary to build 2 key international-class routes including: River - sea tourism route: Hoang Dieu Port - Got Wharf (Dong Bai) - Lan Ha Bay; River tourism route: Hoang Dieu Port - Vu Yen Marina - Bach Dang River - Bach Dang Giang Relic Site - Ruot Lon River and to Hoang Dieu Port; Build 2 high-quality routes: Inner-city river tourism route: Mom Thuy Doi - Tam Bac River (proposed to cut the middle span of Tam Bac Bridge, open and close to create a navigation space); Sightseeing and culinary sightseeing route on the river: Hoang Dieu Port - Bach Dang Bridge and back to Hoang Dieu Port. In the future, routes will be expanded to Van Kiep, Con Son, Kiep Bac wharfs or long-term routes to Hanoi and to the heritage sites of the Red River Delta.

In addition, Hai Phong needs to build a live show that conveys the quintessence of Hai Phong and the coastal region through the language of art on a dry stage or a water stage. The dry stage can use the City Convention and Performance Center. The water stage can choose the Cam River or An Bien Lake.

According to Mr. Hung, in parallel with the project development, there are 5 projects to develop Hai Phong river tourism: River tourism infrastructure project, focusing on building passenger wharves; River tourism vehicle project, clearly defining the types, quantity, technical and aesthetic requirements of river tourism ships and boats; Art and entertainment programs on the river; Art lighting project along the river and on the bridge; Landscape improvement project and construction of riverside destinations. Mr. Hung said that the goal is to approve these projects in the first quarter of 2026 at the latest.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that Hai Phong has a full theoretical and practical basis to develop waterway tourism into one of the key products at the national and international levels. At the same time, Mr. Khanh also pointed out 5 major "bottlenecks" that need to be removed: Insufficient social awareness, lack of specific management institutions, infrastructure that does not meet the needs, environmental landscapes that have not been preserved synchronously, and tourist destinations that are not attractive enough.

Regarding policy, delegates suggested that the city government should implement incentive packages for businesses investing in waterway tourism, including land lease support, tax incentives, financial support and reduced port rental costs. At the same time, it is necessary to clearly define the public investment sector and attract private investment.

Director Nguyen Trung Khanh emphasized that the key solution is to build unique tourism products, focusing on differences, high quality and linking with local cultural identity. Types such as eco-tourism, community, culinary and cultural tourism need to be integrated into the journey to explore Hai Phong's rivers. Applying technology, digital transformation, and strengthening regional connectivity are also key factors in sustainable tourism development.

Accordingly, Mr. Khanh affirmed: "We need to position Hai Phong waterway tourism not only as a potential product, but also as a high-class product, contributing to raising the city's position on the national and international tourism map"...

It can be said that there is still much to be done immediately so that not only Hai Phong waterway tourism becomes a unique identity, a memorable and lingering destination on the tourism map of Vietnam and the world. However, with faith in the heroic city in the era of rising up - these beautiful expectations and goals will soon come true...

Uyen Na - Northeast

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/danh-thuc-du-lich-duong-thuy-dat-cang-hap-dan-tu-cac-san-pham-du-lich-moi-post548147.html