Bac Ninh moves towards green tourism

At Phat Tich pagoda in Bac Ninh (Photo: VNA)

Green tourism is a type of tourism based on nature and culture and contributes to biodiversity protection and sustainable development with the active involvement of local communities. More travellers see eco-holidays as a serious option when choosing their destinations and support businesses and brands that are committed to social values and respect the environment.

Moving with the global inevitable trend, Bac Ninh province considers green tourism as key to sustainable development, and it has outlined its planning on developing the locality into an attractive cultural and eco-tourism hub of the Red River Delta and the whole country until 2035 with vision until 2050.

Accordingly, the province will focus on building the Duong River green tourism belt, seeing it as a core to preserve historical and cultural relic sites and traditional craft villages, as well as the resort and eco-tourism area of Bac Ninh in the future.

Due attention will be paid to forming outstanding tourism brands, while cultural villages will be set up in line with developing community-based tourism.

Preservation work has been channeled focus as well, with trillions of Vietnamese dong having been splashed out on restoring and upgrading local relic sites, including the Bac Ninh Temple of Literature, Dau Pagoda, Phat Tich Pagoda, Kinh Duong Vuong temple, and several revolutionary historical landmarks such as the memorial sites dedicated to Nguyen Van Linh, Ngo Gia Tu and Hoang Quoc Viet.

Bac Ninh province has actively applied numerous measures to fully tap its spiritual tourism potential.

Nguyen Van Anh, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, communication campaigns will be promoted in order to raise the awareness of the role of tourism, particularly spiritual tourism, among levels, sectors and the community.

Besides, the province has been investing in technical infrastructure for tourism, including the expansion of tourism services and the construction of ports, wharves and infrastructure facilities along the Duong and Cau Rivers to connect spiritual tourism destinations.

Apart from mapping out number of typical spiritual tourism tours, Bac Ninh will focus on personnel training, particularly tour guides and safety and security for tourists.

Bac Ninh is home to 1,558 historical and cultural relic sites. Of which, nearly 200 are national relic sites and four are national special relic sites, including 1,000-year-old Phat Tich Pagoda in Tien Du district, Do Temple in Tu Son township.

The province also features 547 traditional festivals and 60 traditional trade villages.

Bac Ninh province is also home to popular Quan Ho love duet singing, which has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage. In the culture of Bac Ninh, the ancient Quan Ho songs create strong relationships between the Quan Ho guilds and those who love the traditional culture of Bac Ninh–Kinh Bac. Bac Ninh province has made efforts to preserve the art to implement commitments to UNESCO on conservation and development of Quan Ho.

In recent years, Bac Ninh has invested in renovation and construction of cultural institutions. Of which, the key project is Bac Ninh Quan Ho folk theatre. The 90-billion-VND project covers an area of 1.9 ha on four floors. It has a unique architectural design in the image of a house, dragon boat, a strip of peach silk and a large round hat, bearing cultural features of Bac Ninh–Kinh Bac.

The art of love duets was inscribed in the UNESCO’s representative list of intangible cultural heritage in September 2009.

Quan ho is an art form that combines various elements, including music, lyrics and costumes, and features the distinctive culture of people in the region formerly called Kinh Bac.

The singing represents different kinds of relationships -- the relationship between male and female singers as romantic lovers, the relationship between two friendly villages and the relationship between performers and the audience. Each element helps define quan ho, give it life and meaning, and the resulting harmony is so much more than just a beautiful song.