Bac Son tourism potential

Diverse tourism potential

The Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2020, vision 2030 approved by the Prime Minister has identified Vietnam as having 7 tourism regions. The Viet Bac War Zone includes 6 provinces: Cao Bang, Bac Kan , Lang Son, Thai Nguyen, Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang is one of the 7 national tourism regions.

With a rich history of heroic revolution, the Viet Bac War Zone preserves more than 1,000 historical, cultural and scenic relics, including revolutionary relics and places associated with Vietnam's history during the resistance war against France, with profound significance in many aspects.

Bac Son district belongs to Lang Son province, which belongs to the Viet Bac War Zone tourist area. Historically, the Bac Son uprising on September 27, 1940 against Japan and France is one of the typical revolutionary events of our people. This was the first armed uprising under the leadership of the Party, contributing significantly to the process of preparing and building forces for the uprising to seize power later. Currently, in Bac Son district, there are 29 relic sites, including 01 special national relic site (including 12 relic sites), 03 national relic sites.

In the photo book “Bac Son - Land of gold, thousands of experiences” - a product of the provincial-level science and technology project “Research on building and developing unique tourism products of Bac Son district, Lang Son province” edited by Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Thi Phuong Thai, Thai Nguyen University, it is stated: “The entire district lies on a limestone arc undergoing karstification, creating amazing natural landscapes. World Tourism Magazine voted Bac Son valley as one of the 10 most beautiful karst valleys in the world”. “Karst terrain is a wonderful gift that nature has bestowed upon Bac Son people. Not only creating attraction in terms of eco-tourism, the caves, fields, lakes, and karst wells also have high archaeological and cultural value”.

Bac Son is one of the cradles of the ancient Vietnamese people. In 1924 - 1925, archaeologists H. Mansuy and M.CoLani discovered the first site proving the presence of a culture of the early Neolithic period, arising from the Hoa Binh culture, dating back about 10,000 years ago. "Bac Son culture" was named from then on and has many universal characteristics and values.

Bac Son is also a land of diverse cultures of many ethnic groups: Tay, Nung, Kinh, Dao, Mong... living together. The Tay ethnic group accounts for 80% of Bac Son's population, so they can be considered the subject of Bac Son Culture.

Over many generations, the Tay people in Bac Son have created a rich material culture system including traditional stilt houses, communal houses, temples, shrines... and intangible cultural values such as: Then singing, Luon singing, Shi singing, Long Tong festival, Na Nhem festival, eating, living, dressing customs, production experience, behavior, folk beliefs...

Na Nhem is the most famous traditional festival of the Tay people in Bac Son, held on the full moon of January every year. With the ritual of smearing faces and dressing up, this is a ritual to worship the gods Cao Son, Quy Minh, King Mieu Tinh and King Cao Quyet associated with the story of fighting the enemy to protect the village and the country. The festival also attracts the attention of the people with the ritual of worshiping and carrying the phallus - a symbol of fertility beliefs very popular in the agricultural community.

Coming to Bac Son, visitors can learn about customs and practices, enjoy traditional dishes, folk music, and typical folk dances of ethnic minority villages... combine sightseeing, experience daily life with the locals, have fun at highland markets, and shop for local products...

Promoting tourism to become a spearhead economic sector

Ms. Duong Thi Thep - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee said that the Party Committee and the district government determined that Bac Son has many diverse potentials to build different tourism products such as: cave research tourism, study tour of revolutionary traditions at historical sites; biodiversity forest research tourism; sightseeing on the lake, cultural tourism, experiential tourism... In which, archaeological tourism, historical tourism, cultural tourism are important resources that not every locality has.

The responsibility of local Party committees and authorities is to lead and direct to arouse and promote those resources, gradually turning tourism into a spearhead industry in the district's economic structure by 2025 according to the Resolution of the District Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term.

Ms. Do Thanh Loan - Head of the District Department of Culture and Information said that recently, the Department has advised the district to promulgate and organize the implementation of the Tourism Development Project for the period 2017 - 2020, with a vision to 2025.

After 5 years of implementing the Project, Bac Son district has 9 tourist attractions including 03 community tourism attractions; 02 eco-tourism attractions; 04 historical and cultural tourist attractions, 29 tourist accommodation service establishments including: 1 hotel, 10 motels, 18 homestay service households.

Currently, Bac Son district is focusing on building two key tourist areas: Bac Quynh commune - where many cultural values of the Tay people are preserved and Chien Thang commune - where there is potential for developing experiential ecotourism. Tourism products are built on the basis of optimal exploitation of the values of cultural heritage, architecture and diverse cultural traditions and customs of the community, associated with conservation to attract visitors; encourage people to participate, build and benefit from tourism activities.

In the process of organizing the implementation of the Resolution of the District Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term on tourism development, in addition to the local determination, the support of the Central Government and Lang Son province through mechanisms and policies is very important.

Ms. Do Thanh Loan - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Bac Son district excitedly said that, following the guidance of the Ministry of Culture - Sports and Tourism, the agency in charge of Project 6 "Preserving and promoting the fine traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities associated with tourism development" in the National Target Program on socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period 2021 - 2030, phase I from 2021 - 2025, the district has registered and been approved for the project to preserve traditional craft villages, with an investment capital of 6 billion VND.

This is the first time a tourism development task associated with cultural preservation has received a large, focused, and key investment from the capital of the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas. The Department of Culture and Information hopes that the successful implementation of the project will be a premise for the national cultural identity to have the conditions to support and promote tourism development - Ms. Loan shared.

Regarding Lang Son province, since December 2020, the Provincial People's Council has issued a Resolution stipulating policies to support community tourism development in the province for the period 2021 - 2025.

Accordingly, organizations, households and individuals participating in activities and business in recognized community tourism sites; in areas where the Provincial People's Council and Provincial People's Committee have policies and plans for community tourism development according to the approved tourism development planning and projects of the province; meeting business conditions according to the provisions of law; having a written commitment to conduct community tourism business for at least 05 years, from the time of receiving investment support, with confirmation from local authorities will enjoy support policies for building infrastructure and technical facilities at community tourism sites.

With many solutions, Bac Son is striving to transform itself into an attractive "Land of Gold - Thousand Experiences" for domestic and foreign tourists./.

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