The Le Van Thinh Temple in Gia Binh district, Bac Ninh province (Photo: VNA)

Bac Ninh (VNA) – Gia Binh district inthe Red River Delta province of Bac Ninh has great potential to become atourist destination given its beautiful natural scenery, rich cultural heritageand numerous traditional craft villages.

However, in order to “awake” the potential, a good investment policy for the tourism sector isneeded. 

Rich cultural heritage

Gia Binh is home to 72 historical and cultural relic sites, 10 of which are atnational level and 62 at provincial level. Some outstanding sites are thetemple dedicated to Le Van Thinh – ranking first in the first imperial examination of the LyDynasty and later becoming a top mandarin, Thien Thu pagoda, Bao Thap temple, and Dai Bipagoda.

Therelic sites are located across many villages, attracting thousands of visitorsfrom all corners of the country.

Gia Binh administration has always paid attention to conserving and repairinghistorical and cultural relics. This year, the district has a plan to conductmaintenance of seven relic sites, which are Gia Phu temple (Binh Duongcommune), Lap Ai temple (Song Giang commune), Cao Tho and Chinh Thuong  communal houses  (Van Ninh commune), Cuu Son communal house(Dong Cuu commune), and Cam Xa communal house and Ngu temple (Nhan Thangcommune).

Thedistrict also boasts beautiful natural landscape with peaceful countrysidescenery, which is suitable for rural tourism, eco-tourism and relaxationtourism. Some big corporations, such as the TH Group, is eyeing investment in tourismin Gia Binh.

Besides,Gia Binh hopes to capitalize on the local Ca tru singing heritage and itsfamous traditional craft villages, like the Dai Bai bronze casting village,Xuan Lai bamboo weaving village, Ngam Luong silkworm raising and silk weavingvillage, to name just a few. The district is working towards developing localtraditional products to serve tourism.  

Future of Gia Binh tourism

Gia Binhadministration has build a project on developing eco and spiritual tourism in2020-2030 and called for investment under the project, which is hoped tocontribute to preserving the local eco-environment, especially agriculturalecology in the context of fast urbanisation.

Under the project, the restructuring of local crop structure will beaccelerated towards hi-tech and clean agriculture, serving as a basis to createmore jobs and raise incomes for locals.

The project maps out a series of solutions in terms of planning, investment,promotion, development of different types of services, cultural heritagepreservation, environmental protection, human resources training and State managementcapacity building.

In the immediate future, Gia Binh will focus on making and approving detailedplans for tourism sites and zones, building programmes for craft villagedevelopment in connection with historical relic sites, conserving andrenovating relics and developing some typical traditional festivals.

Nguyen Hong Phuc, head of the district’s Culture and Information Section,revealed that several potential investors have made surveys with the intentionof making investment in tourism in the district. One of them is the TH Groupwith a plan named “Legendary River” which eyes clean and hi-tech agriculturelinked with eco-tourism and spiritual tourism. This is an encouraging sign forGia Binh’s tourism.

At the same time, the district is taking the initiative in undertakingstrategic solutions so as to create a breakthrough development in tourism andfully tap local potential. It will accelerate work to early complete acultural-eco-spiritual tourism complex beside the Duong River, publish revisedversions of pamphlets on local cultural and historical sites, attract investmentin the Nguyet Ban and Duong River tourism sites, and build a stop-over on NationalHighway 17 near Dai Bai bronze casting village and Xuan Lai bamboo weavingvillage to stimulate tourism in the area.

🔜 Gia Binh has anambition of developing a waterway tourism route on the Duong River startingfrom Kinh Duong Vuong tomb to Cao Lo Vuong Temple, bringing visitors to sitesalong the river such as Xuan Lai bamboo weavingvillage, Dai Bai bronze casting village, Le Chi Vien Temple, Huyen QuangTemple, Le Van Thinh Temple and Thien Thai mountain. The route would also beconnected with Bac Ninh province’s project on tourist boat development./.