VietNamNet Bridge – A local newspaper recently published an article about a 5,000sq.m garden house worth millions of USD of the Party Secretary of Hai Duong province.





Several days ago, Giao Duc Viet Nam (Vietnam Education) newspaper posted an article, with a lot of pictures, depicting an under-construction ‘garden house,’ which is very large and decorated with expensive bonsais and ornamental rockworks, in Ninh Thanh commune, Ninh Giang district of the northern province of Hai Duong. This work is said to be the asset of Hai Duong’s Party Chief Bui Thanh Quyen, who is a member of the Central Party Committee.

According to this newspaper, it got the first information about this expensive construction work from local residents, who said that the work is built illegally, on agricultural land.

According to Vietnam Education’s investigation, this work covers over 5,000sq.m of land and it looked like a resort. When correspondents visited this area, it looked like a ‘great construction site, where many kinds of construction equipment operated.

Builders told correspondents that this ‘garden house’ consists of a three-storey house, including one basement. One floor will be made by rare wood. The house is decorated by giant rockworks and is surrounded by rare trees. The cost for rare wood, rare rockworks, and bonsais is huge.

Bonsai trees in the garden are said to be very expensive because they are ancient rare trees, including several sua tree, which are extremely rare and banned from trading and transporting in Vietnam, of dozens to a hundred of years old. Experts said that the prices of these trees are from hundreds of million to several billion dong each.

Talking with Hai Duong’s Party Chief Bui Thanh Quyen on the phone, Mr. Quyen told Vietnam Education that the house is built legally, not on agricultural land.

Nguyen Xuan Thuan, Chairman of Ninh Giang district, where the villa is built, told correspondents that the villa is owned by Mr. Quyen’s son, Mr. Bui Thanh Tung, who owns a villa that is located in front of the controversial villa.

According to Thuan, the plot of land that Tung owns is accurately 4,152sq.m and it is not agricultural land, so the construction is legal. However, Thuan refused to show the land use right certificate of this land.



Thuan also said that the information that this work is worth hundreds of billion dong (tens of million USD) is not verified.

However, anybody would be shocked by the scale of this villa. Many local residents said that it does not matter that the villa belongs to Mr. Quyen or his son; they did not understand how can this family earn a lot of money to build such a giant work.

After several days trying to contact with Mr. Quyen’s Son, Bui Thanh Tung, VietNamNet’s correspondents did talk with him at noon on May 23. Tung said there is no sua tree in his garden. The trees that look like sua trees are ‘huong vuon’ trees.

He said that the money he invests in this work is earned by himself. Tung is now an official of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Hai Duong province. However, the public questioned that the income of a local official like Tung cannot afford that huge work.


VietNamNet/GDVN