Architects pave the way to Happiness

Standing atop Ma Pi Leng Pass, watching the stream of vehicles going back and forth, few would imagine that more than 60 years ago, this place was just a series of precarious trails clinging to the cliffs. To open up this more than 185-kilometer-long road through some of the most rugged terrain in the country, someone dedicated their heart, intellect, and entire life to this rocky region. That person is engineer Pham Dinh Dy – whom the locals respectfully call: "The chief architect" of the Happiness Road.

Footprints of pioneers

In the late 1950s, behind the Quan Ba ​​Sky Gate lay a world almost completely isolated from the outside world. Amidst the towering jagged mountains, over 80,000 people from the ethnic groups of Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van , and Meo Vac lived in poverty and backwardness; all trade and commerce depended on treacherous mountain trails and the strength of human labor and horses. This hardship was expressed in the poem: "Carrying baskets on shoulders weighs down a lifetime / Footprints on the road of a thousand miles..." These two lines not only reflect the harsh reality of the rocky region but also contain the burning desire of the people for a road connecting them to the lowlands.

Comrade Pham Dinh Dy, former Secretary of the Ha Tuyen Provincial Party Committee.

In that context, the Central Party Committee and President Ho Chi Minh decided to open a road to the rocky plateau, as the far north could not remain isolated forever. However, building a road through the vast gray rocky mountains was an unprecedented task. Even the French colonialists had previously surveyed the area many times but failed, while arrogant bandits spread rumors that: "Only when rocks grow on people's heads and male goats can give birth will the government be able to open a road to Dong Van." Entrusted with the task of directly researching and determining the route, Mr. Pham Dinh Dy, then Head of the Ha Giang Department of Transportation, formed a survey team and went to the field to design the blueprints.

According to Mr. Hua Van Chu, former Deputy Head of the Happiness Road Construction Project Command, at that time there were no detailed topographic maps, let alone modern surveying equipment. The survey team led by Mr. Dy trekked through forests and mountains for months on end. In many sections, they had to follow sheer cliffs, with deep ravines on the other side. Their only supplies were dried food, notebooks, compasses, and the determination to find the optimal solution for the future road. After many days of surveying, Mr. Pham Dinh Dy proposed two options. One was to build a road along the Vietnam-China border, a shorter route requiring less rock excavation, making construction easier.

The second option was to route the road through the centers of populated areas, but this faced numerous difficulties. To provide a more solid basis for selection, Ha Giang province invited two transportation experts from China to conduct a survey. The experts' proposed route also leaned towards following the border because it would save effort and costs. Many opinions at the time agreed with this option. However, Mr. Pham Dinh Dy resolutely defended his stance on choosing the second option.

According to him, road construction is primarily for the benefit of the people. A main road cannot run far from residential areas; it must reach places where ethnic minorities live, bringing the light of civilization to the highlands, creating momentum for economic and cultural development, while also ensuring long-term national defense and security. He also explained that although it requires traversing many rocky mountains and is more arduous to construct, a road built on rocky ground will be more stable and less prone to landslides during the rainy season.

With the strategic vision and decisiveness of an engineer deeply devoted to the rocky plateau, Mr. Pham Dinh Dy persuaded the provincial Party committee to choose the option of routing the road through the middle of the rocky plateau as it is today. More than half a century has passed, and despite numerous repairs and upgrades, the Happiness Road has maintained its original alignment.

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Mr. Trieu Duc Thanh, former Chairman of the People's Committee of Ha Giang province, commented that if the Happiness Road is considered a miracle of the Party's will and the people's aspirations, then Mr. Pham Dinh Dy was the one who laid the first lines for that miracle. Mr. Pham Dinh Dy's vision lay not only in transportation engineering but also in long-term development thinking. The choice to route the road through populated areas created the socio-economic development axis of the rocky plateau region to this day.

The Miracle on the Road to Happiness

On September 10, 1959, the first hammer blows sounded, marking the beginning of one of the most magnificent transportation projects in the history of Vietnam's transportation sector. Over 1,200 young volunteers from six provinces in the Viet Bac region and two provinces, Hai Duong and Nam Dinh, converged on this rocky land. A massive construction site, unprecedented in the history of Vietnam's transportation industry, officially took shape.

Amidst the massive construction site where mountains were being carved and roads were being built, engineer Pham Dinh Dy served as both the "chief architect" planning the route and the person directly supervising and organizing construction on the most treacherous sections. Nguyen Duc Thien, Chairman of the Provincial Association of Former Youth Volunteers, recalled that Mr. Dy was present at almost all the key sections of the road. Regardless of the weather, he regularly checked progress, surveyed the geological conditions, and discussed solutions to any emerging "bottlenecks" with the technical staff.

During those years, the massive construction site of the Happiness Road relied entirely on human strength and rudimentary tools such as sledgehammers, crowbars, and iron crowbars. Many young volunteers had hands bleeding and calloused from struggling with mountain rocks day after day. There was a shortage of water, and every drop was carefully conserved. Amidst these countless difficulties, the construction site command launched a competition to build "champions" in drilling holes, breaking rocks, and smashing stones. Mr. Trinh Van Dam, a champion in drilling holes that year, recalled: "Back then, we came up with the idea of ​​pouring water into the holes and then sealing them with corn cobs."

Water softens the rock, reducing friction so the drill bit can penetrate deeper, requiring less effort and significantly increasing productivity. This simple initiative was replicated on the construction site, contributing to speeding up the construction progress. While other sections of the route were difficult, the 21-kilometer stretch from Dong Van to Meo Vac, passing over the Ma Pi Leng pass, was truly the greatest challenge. The sheer cliffs, hundreds of meters high, with deep ravines below and the swirling Nho Que River, led many to believe that building a road through this area was impossible.

Faced with this challenge, Mr. Pham Dinh Dy and the construction site command decided to establish the "Brave Team" - a special force of the bravest and strongest young men, tasked with conquering the Ma Pi Leng cliff. Recalling those months of conquering Ma Pi Leng, Mr. Nguyen Si Quoc, the team leader of the Brave Team, shared: "The construction site had to prepare 2 tons of rope to stretch along the cliff face. For 11 months, we took turns rappelling down, hanging suspended in mid-air to drill holes and place explosives to blast the rocks. Each day we only managed to open a few centimeters of road, but no one gave up."

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"Faced with a sea of ​​rocks thousands of years old, we, though small, never thought of giving up." In March 1965, the Happiness Road officially opened to traffic from Ha Giang to Meo Vac after nearly six years of persistent "mountain-cutting and road-building." Behind that miracle were more than 2.24 million man-days of labor, nearly 3 million cubic meters of earth and rock excavated and filled, along with the sweat, blood, and youth of thousands of volunteer youth and civilian workers under the command and organization of "chief architect" Pham Dinh Dy.

From the Happiness Road, thousands of provincial, district, and commune roads have now been connected, bringing prosperity to the villages. Mr. Hoang Xuan Don, Head of the Management Board of the UNESCO Dong Van Karst Plateau Global Geopark, said: “The Happiness Road is a symbol of the determined spirit in the Ho Chi Minh era in promoting economic, cultural, and social development to bring the mountainous regions up to par with the lowlands. It is thanks to this road that tourists are connected to the heritage sites in the Dong Van Karst Plateau region.”

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Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/van-hoa/du-lich/202606/kien-truc-su-mo-duong-hanh-phuc-76b1dc5/