VietNamNet Bridge - Mr. Sung Dai Hung, Party Secretary of Dong Van District, Ha Giang Province, said that in the meetings with local voters in June, about a dozen of households in the ancient town of Dong Van proposed to return the national relic title to the state.

Living like prehistoric men, Duong Lam villagers cry for help


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Dong Van ancient town.



The reason for this proposal is the same with those of people in Duong Lam ancient village in Hanoi. "The houses are seriously degraded but they were asked to keep the status quo. They said without timely action from the authorities, they would return the relic title to be able to build new houses," Hung said.

“The level of degradation is actually serious. Wood parts are rotten, the roofs are leaked, the pillars are dilapidated, the walls are nearly falling... We have tried to persuade them to preserve the status quo for decades awaiting state’s preservation projects but they have just waited year after year," Hung added.

It is known that the relic restoration project of the Dong Van ancient town – a national relic – was introduced nearly ten years ago but at this moment it is still in the evaluation stage.

Ha Giang Province has been granted more than VND7 billion ($350,000) from the national target program on culture but less than VND1 billion ($50,000) is for restoration of the Dong Van ancient town.

Revenues of Dong Van ancient town people mostly come from food and accommodation services but this source of revenues is not high since the tourism products are poor. "If the old houses are restored, visitors can stay. But even local people also afraid of living in these houses so how dare visitors," Hung said.

Mr. Hoang Van Kien, director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ha Giang Province, said that while waiting for funds from the state budget, from now to the year end the province would raise VND3 billion ($150,000) from the local sources to urgently restore 10 houses at the highest risk.

"Dong Van ancient town is located in the center of the global geopark – the Rock Plateau of Ha Giang, if the ancient city is lost, the global geopark is no longer meaningful," said Hung.

Tien Phong