I returned to Trang An on a late autumn day to enjoy the peaceful, pristine moments of this picturesque land, where the seemingly endless streams of tourists had thinned considerably.
Northern Vietnam has four distinct seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—but Trang An has only two: bustling and tranquil. I've been here twice during the "bustling season," witnessing scenes on land where people and vehicles are as numerous as flowing water, and on the water where boats are scattered like fallen bamboo leaves on the river after a storm. At that time, Trang An is a bustling metropolis, Bai Dinh becomes a sacred site, and each visitor seems like a wandering pilgrim, following one another into a realm of the mind.
Now, Trang An is in the midst of its "calm season," a time when solo travelers like me can peacefully admire the majestic mountains, leisurely sail on the river to
explore fascinating caves, visit ancient relics perched precariously on cliffs, and freely let our souls wander amidst the green mountains, birds singing, and flowers blooming.
The journey to Trang An becoming a World Heritage site began in the early 1990s. At that time, the King Dinh - King Le historical site, a component of the Trang An scenic complex today, along with four other Vietnamese cultural heritage sites, was submitted to UNESCO for consideration as a World Heritage site.
However, only the Hue Imperial Citadel Complex was recognized by UNESCO in 1993. Perhaps at that time, the heritage dossier for the thousand-year-old Hoa Lu Imperial Citadel was overly focused on the historical events of the early Vietnamese feudal dynasties during the monarchical period, neglecting the majestic and poetic landscapes that nature had "painted" in Trang An, along with the special landscape and ecological values that nature had bestowed upon this "land of the mythical" land on earth.
More than 20 years later, the dossier on this picturesque land reappeared in the sessions of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee with three outstanding criteria: its extraordinary natural beauty and aesthetic importance of global value in terms of landscape; its significance in recording important stages of Earth's history through geological and geomorphological changes; and its exemplary role in the traditional settlement of humans representing many cultures over thousands of years.
Based on these three criteria, the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex was recognized by UNESCO as a mixed World Heritage site on June 23, 2014, in Doha (Qatar), becoming the first heritage site in Vietnam and Southeast Asia to be honored in both natural and cultural aspects.
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