Thai Nguyen Province

 
Thai Nguyen is beautiful and slow pace midland province. It is located closely to Hanoi capital city. In Vietnam when ever talking about Thai Nguyen, people cannot helping imagine about typical local special production of green tea, it accessible long national road number 3 within 60km northern of Hanoi sharing border with neighborhood province such as Hanoi capital on the south, Bac Can on the north; Vinh Phuc, Tuyen Quang on the west, Lang Son, Bac Giang on the east. With very convenience location, Thai Nguyen province became the gateway for economic and political exchanges between the mountainous region and northern midland region.
 

 
ATK Dinh Hoa Thai Nguyen

 
ATK located in Phu Dinh commune, Dinh Hoa district, where President Ho Chi Minh and the Party leaders, the State has lived and worked from 1947-1954 to lead the nine-year struggle against French colonialism.

 

 

ATK Dinh Hoa Thai Nguyen - Photo: thainguyen.gov.vn

ATK is also the capital where the diplomatic activities of our country at that time. Visiting Dinh Hoa, visitors have a chance to sightsee the natural surroundings, such as Hang (Grotto) Pagoda, a seven-level water¬fall, Bao Linh Lake etc.
 
 
Phuong Hoang Cave

 
The cave is located atop Phuong Hoang (Phoenix) Mountain, 45km from Thai Nguyen City along National Road No. 1B in the Thai Nguyen-Lang Son direction. The cave includes 3 layers: the upper layer is Doi (Bat) Cave, the central is Sang (Light) Cave, and the lower is Toi (Dark) Cave.


 

 

Phuong Hoang Cave - Photo: diadiembamien.com

Visitors spend around half an hour climbing up to the cave. Seeing from its foot, the mountain has the shape of two laying phoenixes. Legend goes that a long time ago, there were a couple of phoenixes living very happily and they were born two eggs. Everyday, the father bird looked for food and the mother bird sat the eggs. One day lured by a new flock, the father bird forgot his task and did not come back. Until he remembered his task and returned to the nest, his wife had been transmuted into a rock. Feeling regrettable, he laid on the opposite mountain, looking toward the nest with the hope that his wife could revive. Waiting hopelessly for a long time, he was also transmuted into stone. Since then the mountain has been named Phuong Hoang (Phoenix).

 
Reaching the mouth of the cave, visitors can see the landscape of this land. The Light Cave is spacious and well-ventilated. The stalactites in the cave glitter fancifully thanks to the light from the three main mouths of the caves. Visitors can freely imagine the forms of these stalactites such as a mother is carrying her son on her back on the way to the field, ancient people are hunting wild animals, and lanterns.


 

 

Mo Ga Stream Cave - Photo: phuot.vn
 

At the foot of the Phuong Hoang Mountain, there is Mo Ga Stream Cave. Its entrance is 100m wide and there is a stream that flows out from the cave. In front, there are many small waterfalls, bathing places, rocks, and small rocky islands. The water is clear and the landscape is fantastic.
 

The Phuong Hoang Mountain is the most beautiful in Thai Nguyen with the imposing landscape and beautiful cave. The site attracts many visitors. Phuong Hoang vestige and the stream in Mo Ga Cave were listed as National Sites by the Government in 1994.

 
Nui Coc Lake

 
Nui Coc Lake is located approximately 90km from Hanoi and 25km south west of Thai Nguyen City. Nui Coc Lake lies in magnificent landscapes of a mountainous area. With charming natural scenery, Nui Coc is close to romantic love legend - the boy name Cong and the girl name Coc.

 

 

Nui Coc Lake - Photo: thainguyen.gov.vn
 

Nui Coc Lake is a reservoir with the area of 25km2, 23m depth. The lake is surrounded by mountains and includes 89 islands, concealing mysterious legends, some covered with trees and others housing flocks of storks or mountain goats. Nearby the lake, Coc Mountain stands imposingly amid the blue sky, the bright sunshine over every blade of grass and twig, all creating marvelous and splendid scenery.
 
The lake comprises many islets; some are covered with trees, some with flocks of birds, and others with mountain goats. About 40 species of birds and 15 species of mammals have been recorded in the reservoir area.
 
If you have time, cruise to visit Co Island covered with tree, enjoy the view of overall Nui Coc Lake.


Museum of the cultures of Vietnam's ethnic groups
 

Located in centre of Thai Nguyen City. The museum is a repository depicting the culture of ethnic groups living throughout the Vietnam.
 
The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam's Ethnic Groups was established in 1960 in an area of 39,000m2 of which 3,000m2 is used for exhibition. It contains more than 10,000 documents, and artifacts belong to the cultural heritage of 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. The museum also presents an extensive collection of agricultural, handicraft, and hunting tools. Typical ritual clothes with bright colors and decorative motifs of different ethnic minorities are also exhibited. The unusual costumes of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups used for worshipping their sorcerers are embroidered with lines and designs that supposedly perceive magical sounds.

The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam's Ethnic groups - Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

 

The Viet-Muong showroom presents nearly 500 documents, objects, and photographs illustrating archaeological articles discovered in Phung Nguyen, Dong Dau, and Go Mun in the North of the country. Exhibits of Vietnamese national agricultural and handicraft productions and brocades woven by Muong ethnic minorities are also displayed.
 
Exhibited in the Tay-Thai showroom are nearly 500 documents and artifacts related to the slash-and-burn agricultural technique and traditional trades of minorities, such as the Tay, Thai, Lao, and Lu. Women's clothes and musical folk instruments such as the tinh string instrument, the flute, as well as displays of the traditional ceremonies of several minorities are also exhibited.
 
The H'mong-Dao showroom displays approximately 600 documents and artifacts reflecting the agricultural practices of the H'mong, such as slash-and-burn farming, terraced rice fields, hunting weapons, and clothes of the H'mong-Dao ethnic group.
 
The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam's Ethnic Groups is a repository depicting the culture of ethnic groups living throughout the nation. It is also a place for people to learn about the origins and traditional cultural identities of every ethnic group in Vietnam.
 

Tea Hills in Tan Cuong, Thai Nguyen

 
Located at about 13km from Thai Nguyen city in the West, Tan Cuong is really a destination with natural scenery, sloping hills facing the sunset called “lizard mountain” or “núi Thằn Lằn”. All the streams, headed from the forests, are running along the hill-front to freshen the land of famous tea.
 
Green environment and clean air seem to activate the community life and to surprise the visitors. Hill after hill, tea garden after each other and the flavour of tea make the whole area scented. Day by day, the locals busy themselves with picking and processing tea-buds, so highly-skilled as the conjurers, they are honoured to be the artisans. Each family has a drying-kiln and a house-owner can act in different roles: a farmer as growing, a worker (in processing) and a dealer (in selling tea). Tea-buds picking is for young girls, that’s why, on every tea-hill, it’s always filled with their laughter and singing. Traditionally, tea was dried in cast-iron pan or bronze pan, it needs patience and good care and only women are patient enough for the job. Nowadays, everything is done by machines, it takes less time. Any way, tea quality much depends on how to adjust the heat, sometimes, it’s up to 1800C for generations, the Tan Cuong  people can feel the heat with their hands.


 

 

Tea hills in Tan Cuong, Thai Nguyen - Photo: vietnamtourism.gov.vn

 

Their sensitive and fingers tell them how and when to make the heat high or low. If it’s too hot, tea will become bitter taste. Some skilled people can feel the heat by moving tea leaves. No visitors can come close to the drying pan, although they are carefully instructed.
 
Tea-buds, after picking, need drying in shades in 3 hours, it’s a precious experience handed down by generations. Visitors to Tan Cuong will be guided to the “ancestral land”, to see the old tea-plants in Lam Sơn, under the foot of Guộc mountain. The old tea-trees are so big that a man can only embrace with wide-open arms.
 
It’s very interesting and joyful to sip the tea in the fresh-air atmosphere while listening to aged people telling the history of their “ancestral land of tea”. Tan Cuong tea flavours seem to be the quintessence of natural scents. Don’t forget to buy the local products - Tan Cuong tea for your presents and souvenirs when you visit the land.