On the 4th day of Tet, Tay Ninh welcomed a huge number of visitors from all over the provinces to watch the opening of the Ba Mountain Spring Festival, including 145,000 people taking the cable car up to Ba Den Mountain. Thousands of families, groups of young people, and tourists were present from early morning to late at night, spreading mats, canvas, carpets, sleeping bags, etc. around the foot of the mountain to receive the peaceful energy from the sacred mountain, while waiting for the brilliant fireworks display to celebrate the new spring.
This is not an unusual phenomenon at Ba Mountain. In fact, for many years, on the first days of the year, Ba Den Mountain has always welcomed tens of thousands of tourists every day who come to the foot of the mountain to spread out mats, gather to chat, eat, and sleep overnight to go to the top of the mountain in the morning to pick lucky branches and pray for blessings. This bustling spring festival atmosphere lasts throughout January, and every day the sacred mountain is crowded with people coming to make pilgrimages, worship, and have fun.
With a large number of visitors coming to visit every day, the issue of waste treatment is always a top priority for the Ba Den Mountain National Tourist Area to ensure a clean and beautiful space for visitors and affirm the orientation of sustainable green tourism.
Just after the jubilant festival on the 4th day of Tet, garbage from the foot of the mountain and entertainment and worshiping spots appeared densely, requiring a large-scale cleaning plan. From 3am on the 5th day of Tet, nearly 200 sanitation and landscape staff of Sun World Ba Den Mountain tourist area were mobilized to collect garbage in areas with high concentrations of tourists.
At around 5am on the 5th day of Tet, the staff of the tourist area continued to carry out the second collection. The garbage collection area was spread across many locations such as the main gate, the square, Thuy Duong Lake, Kim Quang Cave, the area behind Ba Den Station, Trung Pagoda, the Ba Pagoda system, the belt and parking areas. On the morning of the 5th, about 1,000 bags of garbage were collected in the Ba Pagoda area alone, and up to 2,000 bags of garbage were collected at the foot of the mountain.
Garbage collection is carried out systematically by the tourist area with the support of many specialized tools such as sacks, garbage tongs, garbage trucks, tractors and garbage compactors. After the garbage is collected in bags, the sanitation team moves it to the collection point, compresses it into blocks before transporting it to the waste treatment plant in Tan Hung. For areas with high pollution levels such as before and after Ba Den Station, workers use water hoses to clean and scrub to ensure the space is clean, ready to welcome new visitors.
Mr. Pham Van Thang (HCMC) said: “Yesterday, when I saw the photo of thousands of tourists sitting on mats at the foot of Ba Mountain, I was really concerned about the huge amount of waste. But this morning when I came here for a pilgrimage, I was really surprised to see the streets were clean. I must say that this place does tourism very professionally and civilly.”
In addition to collecting trash after the festival, within the framework of the Ba Mountain Spring Festival Opening Ceremony, the Organizing Committee distributed bags for visitors to collect trash themselves, contributing to maintaining public hygiene. This is an annual activity maintained to raise awareness of environmental protection, aiming for a green, clean and sustainable tourism space.
According to Ms. Dao Thi Viet - Deputy Director of Sun World Ba Den Mountain: "We always consider waste treatment and ensuring a clean and beautiful landscape as our responsibility to protect the environment, while aiming for sustainable tourism. We also call on every tourist to raise awareness of environmental protection, and join hands to build a civilized and professional tourism image."
With the Ba Mountain Spring Festival lasting until the end of January and countless unique cultural and spiritual experiences, Ba Den Mountain promises to continue to welcome millions of visitors during the New Year. Ensuring the landscape is always green, clean and beautiful has contributed to making Ba Mountain tourist area the most worth-visiting spring destination in the South.
