Hoa Binh Lake in the National Development Plan
According to Decision No. 439/QD-TTg dated March 25, 2021, the Prime Minister has approved the Master Plan for the construction of Hoa Binh Lake National Tourist Area until 2035, with the goal of turning it into a key tourism center for the Northern midlands and mountainous areas. By 2025, Hoa Binh province aims to welcome 2 million visitors, including 350,000 international visitors; by 2035, it will reach 9 million visitors, with tourism revenue estimated at tens of thousands of billions of VND.
In addition, the Hoa Binh Provincial Planning for the period 2021 - 2030 (Decision No. 1648/QD-TTg) identifies Hoa Binh Lake as one of the three pillars of tourism development in the whole province, along with Kim Boi - Lac Thuy and Mai Chau - Tan Lac. The provincial government always tries to promote investment in transport infrastructure along the lake, port system, electricity - water, ecological accommodation, human resource training and development of high-quality community tourism products with unique identity.
Beauty in the blue mountains
After visiting the largest hydroelectric project in both Vietnam and Southeast Asia in the 20th century (until 2012, this record was "sold" to the Son La brothers with the project on the second rung of the Da River), from the center of Hoa Binh city, boating along the clear blue water of the lake, visitors can clearly feel the harmony between nature and culture.
The lake surface is vast, embracing the rolling mountains and airy villages in the fields and fruit gardens. In the middle of the lake, the rocky island emerges like petrified lotus flowers, there are coconut islands, there are islands covered with green forests, a place to relax in the middle of pristine nature.
The sunlight shines down on the water like a sparkling lights, and every sunset, the whole lake sinks in the purple mist, making people feel as if they are calm according to the whirlwinds of the drilling, or the crispy explosion of motorboats and tourist boats that makes the water surface roll like the breath of the lake.
The boat stopped into Thac Bo Cave - a majestic cave with billion-shaped, sparkling yapops under the lights like a palace in the heart of the mountain. Not far away is the Bo Waterfall Temple, a "spiritual address" that always attracts locals and visitors from all over to worship and visit...
Villages such as Ngoi Hoa (Tan Lac), Mo Ham (Da Bac) are ideal stops for visitors to explore the life of the Muong people through the architecture of ancient stilt houses, traditional dishes, and the beauty of a unique culture.
In 2023, Hoa Binh province welcomed over 3.3 million visitors, of which the lake area contributed a significant part. Total revenue from tourism reached nearly 3,500 billion VND. The lake area alone has dozens of approved or proposed investment projects, with a total capital of thousands of billions of VND, opening up a promising direction for eco-tourism combined with high-end resorts.
Green, identity and sustainability tourism
The first lake tourism was carried out by the people who built the Hoa Binh century structure - the first hydropower steps on the Da River. Since the end of 1988, after the No. 1 complex was connected to the National grid, the Riva Da Hydropower Corporation has assigned the hydraulic mechanical enterprise to exploit tourism here.
Not only buying ships, building resorts, even if it is still simple, the factory has invited many experts, journalists, artists and even international visitors to go on field trips to search and restore many grottos and landscapes, contributing to expanding the possibility of eco-tourism and spiritual tourism...
The factory's lake tourism located in Hanoi has contributed to promoting a new tourism area in the early 1990s... Later, when the factory was completed, all land, auxiliary works, and infrastructure transferred to Hoa Binh province gradually accelerated Hoa Binh tourism, hydroelectric lake tourism has a basis, and strong and sustainable development conditions.
The first advantage is geography. Compared to the first hydroelectric reservoir in the North - Thac Ba (1971, Yen Bai) and of course the two other hydroelectric steps on the same river - Son La, Lai Chau - Hoa Binh closest to the capital Hanoi, only about 70 km. Hoa Binh Lake is the largest artificial lake in Southeast Asia, with a capacity of nearly 10 billion cubic meters, with 47 large islands with an area of nearly 160 hectares, so there are many favorable conditions for further tourism development in the future...
No longer just a place to sightsee, Hoa Binh Lake is gradually becoming an eco-tourism center associated with community culture. Boating tours, camping on the island, kayaking, visiting craft villages, attending folk festivals, learning to cook Muong dishes... are built more systematically, attracting not only domestic tourists but also international tourists to experience indigenous culture.
Many strategic investors such as T&T Group, VinGroup, FLC, TMS Group... are promoting high-end resort projects around the lake. However, the core is still preserving Muong identity, preserving the lake ecosystem, harmonious landscape planning - so that the lake area is not "hotly urbanized", but develops as a cultural treasure trove in the midst of a thousand years.
Hoa Binh Lake is not only a lake serving the hydropower plant, but also a place that contributes to preserving the memories of a land, a place where the majestic nature and thousand-year-old culture of the Muong, Thai and other ethnic groups converge.
When visitors come here not only to see, but to live, to understand, to love - the lake will truly wake up...
