Many visitors are willing to travel considerable distances to take photos amid the rustic scenery of canals and coconut palms that evokes the waterways of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

About 140km from Hanoi, the lush family garden of Nguyen Van Kien, born in 1990, in Quang Yen Ward, Quang Ninh Province, has recently emerged as a popular attraction thanks to its peaceful landscape, reminiscent of the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

Duong Kim Chi, born in 1993, said she traveled about 30km from Ha Long to Quang Yen to visit and experience the site after discovering it on social media.

“I haven’t had the chance to visit the Mekong Delta and experience it firsthand. But when I came to this garden in Quang Yen, I found the scenery quite similar to images of the region I had seen on television and social media,” she said.

The 33-year-old visitor said the attraction is fairly spacious, with plenty of photogenic corners.

The “mini Mekong Delta” area is particularly striking, with a clear-water canal flanked by rows of coconut palms reflected on its surface.

A small blue boat sits on the water, allowing visitors to take in the scenery and pose for photographs.

“The setting looks very convincing in photos,” Chi said. “If you find the right angle, the resemblance can be 70-80%, giving you the feeling that you are actually making your way through one of the small canals in the Mekong Delta.”

Chi said she visited in the morning, when the weather was pleasantly cool.

To make her photographs more evocative, she rented traditional southern Vietnamese clothing and accessories, including an ao ba ba shirt, a conical hat and a checkered khan ran scarf.

“Luckily, the owner is very enthusiastic about helping visitors, from rowing the boat to finding the right angles for photos and videos, so I came away with plenty of pictures I really liked,” Chi added.

Visitors said the attraction is well suited to a day trip.

Speaking to VietNamNet, Kien said his family had already been operating the garden as a sightseeing and photography destination for some time.

Most visitors traditionally came during lotus season, when the site was at its busiest.

But after seeing social media videos of people paddling boats between rows of coconut palms in the Mekong Delta attract widespread attention, Kien decided to transform part of his garden into a photo setting inspired by the waterways of southern Vietnam.

“Our family’s tourism area covers more than one hectare, with the lotus-growing area accounting for about one-third of it,” he said. “The canal was originally an irrigation channel used to bring water to the farmland. It is about 450 meters long and six to seven meters wide, with 200 coconut trees planted along both banks.”

In transforming the landscape, Kien made use of the property’s existing features, carrying out relatively simple work such as clearing duckweed from the canal and putting boats into the water for trial runs.

On rainy days, he has to keep a close watch on the canal to ensure the water remains at a safe level. If it rises too high, he drains some of the water.

A roughly 60-meter section of the canal is currently open to visitors, with three boats in operation. Kien is continuing to add decorations and small landscape features to make the setting more authentic and attractive.

“I’ve traveled to the Mekong Delta many times and really love the scenery there, especially the coconut groves and fruit orchards laden with produce that can be harvested throughout the year,” Kien said. “When I returned home, I also dreamed of creating a tourism site like that. But it takes a lot of work and has to be adapted gradually because the climate, soil and fruiting seasons are different in each region.”

Kien said that beyond the canal and coconut palms, the grounds also feature a large lotus pond and several rustic installations on land, including a thatched, earthen-walled house and wooden bridges.

He has also brought in traditional round basket boats from another locality, giving visitors another experience reminiscent of southern Vietnam while they explore and take photographs.

Kien said the attraction currently receives around 50 visitors a day, with numbers rising on weekends.

Most come from nearby areas within Quang Ninh Province, though the garden also attracts visitors from Hanoi and Hai Phong.

The “mini Mekong Delta” in Quang Yen is only around 30km from central Ha Long. Visitors from surrounding areas can reach it conveniently via major roads and expressways.

Those visiting Quang Yen can also sample local specialties including stir-fried noodles with ngan mollusks, seven-course horseshoe crab, roasted freshwater crab with wild betel leaves, and local “crawling” shrimp.

Thao Trinh