The reproduction of Hoa Lu Ancient Town is located around the Ky Lan Lake in Ky Lan Park of Ninh Binh City, while the Trang An Ancient Town is located at the Trang An Landscape Complex in Hoa Lu District. The two projects feature

history and culture during the 10th century, including traditional craft villages such as Van Lam embroidery, Ninh Van stone carving village, fine art carpentry village, Bo Bat pottery village and Bodhi painting in Ninh Binh; Y Yen lacquerware (from Nam Dinh Province) and Dong Ho painting village (from Bac Ninh Province), among others.

Visitors to the two new venues have an opportunity to enjoy traditional dishes and specialties, including honey cake, sticky rice cake, banh chung (four-cornered dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in rush or bamboo leaves and boiled), and other cakes and dishes.

The projects are among the efforts to develop Ninh Binh Province’s tourism in the 2021-2030 period and attract visitors to the province after prolonged social distancing and pandemic control measures, and revive Ninh Binh as a local and international tourist center in the Hong (Red) River Delta.

The simulated Hoa Lu old town by night

Ninh Binh Province attracted a large number of visitors during the Lunar New Year holiday

Some 12 million visitors by 2030

Tourism has contributed significantly to Ninh Binh Province’s socioeconomic development in the past, but the Covid-19 pandemic sharply reduced the number of visitors to the province. The simulation of the Trang An and Hoa Lu ancient quarters is expected to help Ninh Binh restore tourism in particular and economic development in general.

Ninh Binh welcomed 180,000 tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday from January 29 to February 6, up 40 percent from the last Lunar New Year holiday, partly thanks to new destinations like Hoa Lu and Trang An projects.

Ninh Binh has set a target of welcoming eight million visitors with total revenue of more than VND8 trillion (making a 6.5 percent contribution to the province’s gross regional domestic product or GRDP), and adding 23,000 new jobs or more in 2025. By 2030, the province is expected to attract 12 million visitors, including two million foreign visitors, with total revenue of VND18.66 trillion (making an 8 percent contribution to the province’s GRDP), and creating 43,700 new jobs.

Bui Van Manh, Director of the Ninh Binh Department of Tourism said that in recent years, Ninh Binh had become one of the 10 most attractive tourist destinations in Vietnam and was voted by many international travel websites as an attractive tourist destination. The province has huge potential and rich cultural and historical values ​ to develop into a leading national and regional tourist destination.

Thanh Tam