A meeting place to experience the sweet season
Not only famous for the specialty of seaweed, Thanh Ha commune (Hai Phong city) has also been known in recent years as a destination for agricultural and garden ecological experiences, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. During the ripe fabric season, bright red gardens become a space for sightseeing, check-in, and experience the life of farmers, contributing to enriching local tourism products.
In Dong Man village, Thanh Ha town, Dong Man eco-tourism area is one of the typical models of fabric garden exploitation associated with agricultural tourism. This area is formed on the basis of perennial fruit gardens, combined with the natural landscape along the river, creating a typical ecological space of the Northern countryside.
In the ecological area, the terrace gardens are spread out, interspersed with lotus ponds, grass and small paths leading deep into the garden. The river curves around the Dong Man area, bringing a cool, fresh, and pleasant air. The natural landscape is preserved, limiting concreting, creating a feeling of closeness to nature and agricultural production life.
During the main fabric crop, Dong Man ecological area welcomes many groups of visitors to visit, take photos, and experience picking fabric in the garden. Visitors can walk under the tree canopy, observe each cluster of ripe red fruits, listen to an introduction to fabric varieties, care and harvesting methods. The experience of enjoying fabric right at the root of the tree is an activity chosen by many people when coming here.
One of the services that tourists are interested in is rowing a boat to visit the lychee garden along the river. From the boat, visitors can admire the fruit gardens reflecting on the water surface, feeling the peaceful space, different from the rhythm of urban life. On peak days, especially on weekends, this service is often booked in advance to ensure full service for groups.
Not only welcoming domestic visitors, Dong Man eco-tourism area is also a stopover for many groups of visitors from Hanoi, Hung Yen, Quang Ninh and some other localities. Some international groups also chose to visit the fabric garden model combined with eco-tourism to learn about Vietnam's agricultural production and rural life.
During the fabric season, the ecological area welcomes more than 100 visitors every day to visit, take photos and experience activities in the garden. In addition to sightseeing, visitors can sit by boat to enjoy lotus tea, walk around the garden, participate in folk games or simply relax in the cool green space.
Sharing about the tour, Ms. Mai Xuan Quynh (32 years old, Hanoi) said that her family chose Thanh Ha as their weekend destination because of its airy space, suitable for both adults and children. My children really like going into the garden to pick fabric, learn about fruit trees and participate in outdoor activities. For adults, this is an opportunity to rest and enjoy the fresh air, said Ms. Quynh.
Many young families also bring their children to the Thanh Ha fabric area on weekends. Activities such as picking fabric, catching fish, playing folk games or visiting the garden help children have more practical experiences of nature and agricultural labor. In the garden, the image of children enjoying climbing trees, picking fruits and enjoying fabric on the spot creates a vibrant and close atmosphere.
In addition, the riverside space is also chosen by many tourists for taking photos, relaxing and sightseeing. The combination of natural landscape, fruit garden and experiential activities has contributed to creating a typical tourism product of Thanh Ha fabric area.
Thanh Ha farmers take advantage of fabric gardens for tourism
When the clusters of ripe red imported fabric cover the gardens along the Dong Man River, it is also the time when many Thanh Ha farmers start welcoming visitors to visit and experience. In addition to agricultural production, opening gardens to welcome visitors has become a new direction for local people in recent years.
According to Ms. Pham Thi Liem - owner of Dong Man eco-tourism area, her family has been attached to the fabric garden for many years. Realizing that the garden has a favorable location, beautiful landscape, surrounding water, and cool air, the family has gradually taken advantage of the available space to serve visitors. Tourism is being implemented in parallel with garden care, ensuring both preserving agricultural production and meeting the experience needs of tourists.
Initially, visitors were mainly acquaintances and friends. After that, through introductions and social networks, the number of visitors gradually increased. The family continues to arrange additional resting areas, garden walkways, boat rowing services and experiential activities associated with the fabric garden. The items are made on the basis of taking advantage of natural landscapes, limiting the impact on the environment.
Not only in Dong Man ecological area, many farming households in Thanh Ha have also begun to exploit fruit gardens to serve experiential tourism. For them, the fabric garden is not only a place of production but also a space to welcome guests, introduce local products and culture. Welcoming visitors, experiencing fabric picking, and enjoying specialties in the garden helps people directly promote products, while creating more revenue from accompanying services.
In recent years, Thanh Ha has also welcomed many international delegations to visit the lychee area, learn about the process of planting, caring for and harvesting lychee fabric. The groups often combine to visit the fabric garden, experience boating along the river and learn about the daily life of local people.
According to Thanh Ha commune, not only implementing methodical production, building infrastructure and developing human resources to serve tourism, the locality pays special attention to tourism promotion and advertising. Propaganda and introduction of Thanh Ha garden eco-tourism is carried out regularly on information networks from the central to local levels, websites and social networking platforms to attract tourists.
Every year, the locality builds a source of information and documents, printing over 15,000 leaflets introducing eco-tourism routes and destinations, visiting relics; at the same time, proactively calling on businesses to invest in the field of eco-tourism. Through propaganda and promotion activities, people are gradually forming a self-awareness in protecting the landscape, preserving the environment, building a civilized and polite lifestyle when participating in tourism.
In addition, Thanh Ha commune also actively promotes and encourages people to participate in developing community tourism, exploiting existing resources such as fruit gardens, especially bades. Combining agricultural production with experiential tourism is identified as a direction suitable to the actual conditions of the locality.
From fabric gardens that are only associated with the harvest season, Thanh Ha has now gradually formed garden-on-field eco-tourism destinations, where farmers directly participate in tourism through their own gardens. Each ripe fabric season is not only a sweet season but also a time when people open the door to welcome guests, introducing the image of the countryside and people to tourists from near and far.
