A thousand years before the sea

biển - Ảnh 1. — For a thousand years, Vietnamese fishermen have made their living on the waves - Photo: Minh Thu

"The light boat glides like a swift steed / The oars propel it powerfully across the long river / The sails are hoisted high like the soul of the village / Its vast white body stretches out, gathering the wind"... Along more than 3,260km of coastline, it would be impossible to count how many such villages, nestled amidst the sea, have been established, survived, and developed by the Vietnamese people over the past thousand years.

From the legend of Lac Long Quan, who was said to be able to travel both underwater and on land, to the images of boats and oars carved on Dong Son bronze drums, from the fragments of wooden boats unearthed here and there along riverbanks and seabeds, to historical texts... all tell future generations about the Vietnamese people accustomed to living by the water and wind, accustomed to struggling with waves and storms, about the long southward expansion along the coast that shaped a nation that has stood firm and tall for a thousand years before the vast blue expanse.

biển - Ảnh 2. — Thi Nai Lagoon, Quy Nhon coastal area, Gia Lai province - Photo: Minh Thu

The aspiration to reach out to the ocean, to build prosperity with the ocean, and to protect the peace of the land, has never been as strong and passionate in the Vietnamese people as it is in the year 2026, with all the favorable conditions of timing, location, and human resources.

Coastal highways – running alongside the sea – connect the open ocean, facilitating tourism and transportation; deep-water ports welcome international shipping; vibrant and proud coastal cities; large and small islands are becoming increasingly bustling, lively, and lush green...

And the people. Ancient Vietnamese people clung to the sea with basket boats, wooden ships, fishing nets, fishing lines, and the bitter sweat of their labor. Today, Vietnamese people build ocean-going vessels with carrying capacities of tens of thousands of tons, own yachts worth hundreds of billions of dong, enjoy sailing and paragliding on the waves, and create structures in the sea brimming with energy, opportunities for wealth, inner strength, and peace...

The sea may still bring storms, but the Vietnamese people have a thousand years of understanding the sea to overcome storms, a thousand years of loving the sea so that Vietnam will forever develop in the direction that nature has laid out for a maritime nation.