Promoting heritage values, turning Thai Binh into an interesting destination

Thai Binh is a land with a rich historical and cultural tradition. The cultural sediments here have been deeply deposited and permeated into the souls of many generations. On the land at the end of the Red River, up to now, the whole province has inventoried 2,969 ancient cultural institutions bearing strong historical and cultural imprints. Among them, many relics, artifacts, antiquities, and Han Nom documents have particularly typical values, which are invaluable assets contributing to making the peaceful rice countryside an interesting destination for domestic and international tourists.

Báo Thái Bình•02/05/2025

The special national relic of the tombs and temples of the Tran Dynasty kings (Tien Duc commune, Hung Ha district) is a destination on the journeyof educating about local historical traditions.

Rich heritage treasure

Throughout history, Thai Binh has attracted many streams of people from different regions to live, reclaim land, establish villages, take rice cultivation as the main way of life and bring with them customs and cultural practices. These factors have created a treasure trove of cultural heritage that is extremely rich, diverse and valuable. Historical relics are an important element in the treasure trove of cultural heritage, authentic evidence of the historical and cultural characteristics of the nation. This is also a message from the past passed on to the next generation, a place that helps each person feel the national tradition, find historical traditions, ethical values, aesthetics, beliefs, spirituality... On the basis of that tradition, the next generations have the opportunity to continue and create new cultural values.

Mr. Do Quoc Tuan, Director of the Provincial Museum, informed: According to the published inventory of relics, Thai Binh province has a large number of relics but the density of relics distributed in the districts is uneven. The relics are densely concentrated in the districts of Hung Ha, Thai Thuy, Dong Hung, Quynh Phu with 1,917 relics, accounting for over 60% of the total number of relics in the province. In addition to the two relics ranked at the national level, especially Keo Pagoda (Vu Thu) and the tomb and temple complex of Tran Dynasty kings (Hung Ha), the province has 125 relics and relic clusters ranked at the national level. Most of these relics are of the art architectural type, most concentrated in the districts of Hung Ha, Thai Thuy, Dong Hung. Research shows that the province has many architectural relics from the Le Dynasty, which were later restored and rebuilt during the Nguyen Dynasty. Therefore, in the ranking decision, these relics were determined to date back to the Le - Nguyen Dynasty. These are architectural and artistic works of typical value, needing attention to preserve and promote the value of national relics.

In terms of type classification, the relics in the province are historical relics, architectural and artistic relics, and archaeological relics. Each type has works rich in historical and cultural values. We can mention the archaeological relics in the ancient land of Ngu Thien, Hung Ha district today such as: the mausoleum and temple of the Tran Dynasty kings, Tien Duc commune; Lo Giang Palace, Hong Minh commune; Cong Pagoda, Minh Tan commune... In terms of architectural and artistic types, we must mention: Keo Pagoda, Duy Nhat commune (Vu Thu); An Co communal house, An Tan commune (Thai Thuy), Hai Thon temple, Xuan Hoa commune (Vu Thu)... In addition, outstanding historical revolutionary - resistance relics such as: comrade Nguyen Duc Canh memorial site, Diem Dien town (Thai Thuy); Tong Vi Si School, Chi Hoa commune (Hung Ha); Nguyen Xa resistance village (Dong Hung)... are playing an active role in educating traditions for today's and future generations.

Cultural heritage is a destination on the journey of developing community tourism . In the photo: Water puppetry at Dong Cac water puppetry troupe (Dong Hung).

Developing tourism into an important economic sector

In order to exploit and promote resources from the ancient cultural institution system, in 2024, the Provincial Party Executive Committee issued Resolution No. 09 on developing tourism into an important economic sector of the province. The Resolution determined: Tourism development must be based on exploiting existing potentials and strengths; preserving and promoting traditional historical and cultural values of the locality to create highlights in the chain of links on the tourism map of the region. At the same time, tourism development is the responsibility of the entire political system, with consensus, joint efforts, and participation of the whole society with high determination, positivity, perseverance, and drasticness; with close leadership and direction of Party committees at all levels, and effective management of the government; Mobilizing resources and strongly promoting the role of businesses and communities, in which the active and creative participation of people in tourism activities is of great significance, both increasing income and enriching the economy and contributing to enriching the culture of each region and locality.

From the orientation of developing tourism into an important economic sector, Thai Binh province sets a target of welcoming over 4.5 million visitors/year, including about 10,000 international visitors; creating jobs for about 14,600 tourism workers; tourism revenue is estimated at 7,000 billion VND. By 2050, welcoming over 9 million visitors/year, including about 30,000 international visitors; creating jobs for about 20,000 tourism workers; tourism revenue is estimated at over 18,000 billion VND.

Mr. Truong Van Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, informed: Many tangible and intangible cultural heritages have been protected and their values promoted, many relics have become regular tourist attractions, contributing to promoting the image of Thai Binh province, well serving the needs of enjoyment, creativity, sightseeing, and tourism not only of Thai Binh people but also domestic and foreign tourists. The province's tourism business has made many advances, the number of tourists and social income from tourism continue to increase. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has coordinated with Thai Binh Telecommunications to integrate new technologies in transmitting information about Thai Binh tourism to domestic and foreign tourists; at the same time, it is a channel to receive and promptly handle feedback from tourists to state management agencies on tourism. This is one of the specific steps in the roadmap for digitization and business of digital content services on smart technology platforms.

In order to develop tourism into an important economic sector, in recent times, attention has been paid to promoting and introducing a variety of impressive destinations in the province. With the message "Thai Binh - a peaceful land, sublimating emotions", we believe that with the active participation of functional sectors and the consensus of people in places with cultural heritage, Thai Binh will soon become an interesting destination for domestic and international tourists to explore the S-shaped land.