In early April, when the weather is still cold, but when we arrived at Minh Chau commune (Van Don), we could still easily see the bustling atmosphere of restaurants preparing for the tourist season. Many new houses are being built, motels and restaurants are preparing in the best way to welcome the new tourist season.
In 2025, Minh Chau commune aims to welcome about 220,000 visitors, of which international visitors account for more than 5%. In the second and third quarters alone, the expected number of visitors is about 200,000, of which about 10,000 are international visitors.
In addition to the blue sea, white sand, and golden sunshine, to diversify tourism products to help tourists not get bored, Minh Chau commune has created many more types of tourism. The commune opened the Minh Chau tourist walking street on April 30, 2023, deployed in Ninh Hai village, the central village of the commune, with a length of 510m from the commune center to the beach. The street has a 7m wide road, an average sidewalk of 2.5m, and operates every Saturday evening.
The walking street is installed, decorated with welcome gates, street lights, LED lights, trees, and ornamental plants that are bright and beautiful, and the cost of building the street and operating is from socialized sources. In addition, households on the street side also decorate their own lighting systems, LED lights, trees, and ornamental plants in front of their houses. The walking street develops existing businesses and types of tourism services and encourages households to serve more refreshments, fast food, coastal cuisine , and local specialties, souvenirs, handicrafts, and other groceries. The commune also assigns the Youth Union to perform cultural performances, creating a joyful and exciting atmosphere for people and tourists every evening when the walking street is open.
Minh Chau walking street has been operating for nearly 2 years and is very bustling and crowded during the tourist season. Mr. Le Trung Ha, a tourist from Hanoi, said: This is the second time I have come to Minh Chau, but unlike the previous time, the evening was really boring, besides swimming in the sea, eating and drinking, there was almost nothing left. Now the walking street really attracted us to come and want to stay longer. Especially the walking street next to the primeval myrtle forest and beautiful beach, which is not easy to find in other places.
Minh Chau has the most unique Myrtle forest in the country, covering an area of 13 hectares, located in the beach area. At the end of December 2024, the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment announced the decision to recognize the population of 150 Myrtle trees on Minh Chau Island as a Vietnamese heritage tree. Minh Chau Myrtle forest creates a diverse tourism in the island commune. In addition to swimming in the sea, visitors also have moments of relaxation when walking in the forest. Many motels also help visitors relax by fishing for squid, fishing in safe sea areas, or visitors experience clam raking, digging for sea worms on the beach, which many visitors really enjoy.
Another concern of previous visitors to Minh Chau is that because the island is far from the mainland, whether digital technology activities are convenient, while many visitors already consider smartphones an indispensable item. Minh Chau is located in the core area of Bai Tu Long National Park. Recently, Bai Tu Long National Park has coordinated with Viettel Quang Ninh to upgrade the technical infrastructure of the BTS station in Cai Lim island area on Bai Tu Long Bay, thereby covering telecommunications in most areas of Bai Tu Long National Park, meeting the requirements of tourism development, serving the opening and official launch of the Bai Tu Long Bay tourism route on March 29. Minh Chau commune has also promoted the use of digital technology, so far all activities on the island are as convenient as on the mainland.
Thanks to tourism development, the lives of Minh Chau people have been significantly improved, with an average income per capita of more than 100 million VND/year. Currently, many new accommodation establishments are still springing up. According to the 2024 statistics of the Minh Chau Commune People's Committee, the commune currently has 60 accommodation establishments with 1,050 rooms. Many families who do not directly work in tourism still build large houses with many rooms, if necessary, to serve tourists. Therefore, during peak periods such as the April 30 and May 1 holidays, the number of tourists coming to the island is larger than the number of people in the commune, but Minh Chau still meets all the accommodation needs of tourists.
Siege
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