To make Con Hen oasis a typical tourist destination of Hue

Con Hen on the Huong River in Vy Da Ward, Hue City has a land area of ​​nearly 24 hectares with more than 1,000 households living and earning a living with different occupations. After the suspension of planning was removed, people in this area recently received good news when Hue City has a policy to invest more than 900 billion VND to renovate and improve Con Hen. Thereby, the appearance of this oasis will be changed to develop tourism services, helping people have a new and better life.

One morning in mid-September 2025, we visited Con Hen and heard many stories about the land and people of the oasis here. Local people said that Con Hen has a history of hundreds of years, formerly known as Boi Thanh village because the island was formed by alluvium from the Huong River. As an oasis located in the middle of the Huong River, more and more households are coming to this land to make a living by raking mussels, catching shrimp and fish and growing crops. Up to now, the Con Hen area has more than 1,000 households with about 4,100 people living.

Con Hen Oasis was invested in and renovated by Hue City government to preserve the environment and landscape for tourism .

Due to its geographical location, the Huong River surrounds the green garden and is right in the center of Hue City, so more and more tourists come to Con Hen to visit and experience. This is a joy but also a concern for the people when the infrastructure in Con Hen is increasingly degraded and overloaded. In particular, Phu Luu bridge made of iron, 3m wide, is the only bridge connecting Con Hen with the center of Hue City, which is now degraded. In addition, the internal traffic system in Con Hen has a main road 3m-3.5m wide, a small fishbone road 1.2m wide, which is damaged and degraded over time.

According to the investigation of CAND Newspaper reporters, in 1998, the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province (now Hue city) issued a decision on the master plan for the Con Hen area to build an eco-tourism area and high-class entertainment services. Then, at the end of June 2015, the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province approved the detailed plan for the construction of Con Hen at a scale of 1/500. However, the implementation of investment attraction according to this plan could not meet the needs due to the large number of affected households. And after 24 years of suspended planning, by mid-2022, the local government removed the suspended planning from Con Hen to have a plan to adjust the planning associated with renovating and embellishing residential areas in the downstream area combined with exploiting a part of the upstream land fund with an appropriate scale. From there, public services, squares, open spaces and supplementing the missing social infrastructure institutions in Con Hen were formed.

And most recently, at the end of July 2025, good news came to the people of Con Hen when the People's Committee of Hue City had a policy to invest in a project to renovate the Con Hen area with a total cost of 925 billion VND from the city budget.

Accordingly, the project will be implemented on an area of ​​8.2 hectares from 2026 to 2029. The project will build a 3.2km long protective embankment around Con Hen; build a 2.5km long road on the top of the embankment; renovate the riverbank, plant trees, install lighting, arrange parking lots; widen Ung Binh road to 16m wide and 188m long. The project will relocate and resettle 178 main households and arrange 150 lots for secondary households in Con Hen.

Mr. Nguyen Tran Nhat Tuan, Director of the Investment and Construction Project Management Board of Region 1 (Hue City) - the unit assigned to implement the Con Hen renovation project, said: "This project is implemented with the goal of building a reinforced embankment to prevent riverbank erosion, clear the channel, protect the flood escape corridor, expand the riverbed, and limit the damage caused by erosion on the Huong River bank in Con Hen during the rainy and flood season. In addition, the riverbank renovation will create a green, clean and beautiful landscape on Con Hen, a highlight on the Huong River, promote tourism development, and ensure a civilized and modern living environment for people in the area benefiting from the project."

Upon hearing that Hue City has invested a large amount of money in Con Hen to renovate and improve it, many people living on this oasis have expressed their joy and excitement. Ms. Nguyen Thi Toan (on Ung Binh Street, Vy Da Ward), who sells all kinds of cakes and vermicelli, said: “We, the people of Con Hen, are very excited because after many years of waiting, the local government has finally decided to invest in renovating this oasis to suit the city's daily development. From there, people will have the conditions to develop industries and services to better serve tourism.”

The leaders of Hue City People's Committee affirmed that Con Hen is located in the city's tourism highlight, so the investment in renovating Con Hen will aim to develop synchronous urban infrastructure, meet the goals of stabilizing social security for Con Hen residents and preserving and honoring the city's historical and cultural values. In addition, the project will contribute to improving the quality of the environment and urban landscape, establishing green spaces, community cultural spaces, enhancing the value of effective land use, developing tourism and socio-economy, attracting investment on the principle of harmony with community interests. The investment in renovating Con Hen area is extremely important for Con Hen to become a high-class service tourism area in the direction of ecology and modern culture. Thereby contributing to promoting traditional cultural values, preserving the environment and natural landscape, creating a typical tourist destination of Hue City.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Chuyen-dong-van-hoa/de-oc-dao-con-hen-tro-thanh-diem-du-lich-dac-trung-xu-hue-i780888/