The Hanoi Tourism Department and travel firms are joining forces to build cultural heritage tours for foreign travelers.

Duyen Thai commune, located 15 kilometers from Hanoi’s central area, just 30 minutes of drive, has two famous craft villages, imbued with cultural and historical values – Phuc Am votive papers village, which makes products for the ‘netherworld’s citizens’, and Ha Thai lacquer village.

Phung Quang Thang from the Vietnam Travel Association, said Phuc Am is a village famous for its production of votive paper and offerings associated with the spiritual culture and folk beliefs of Vietnamese people. The village can provide sophisticated votive paper serving the practice of the Vietnamese Mother Goddess Worship, recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2016.

Being one of the largest votive paper craft villages in the north, Phuc Am’s products are made in large quantities and distributed throughout the country. The products are handmade and they are friendly to the environment.

Ha Thai lacquer village has existed for 200 years. All the stages of production are manually done, while the paint is naturally sourced. All materials are selected well to create products with high durability and eye-catching colors.

In 2020, Ha Thai was officially recognized by the Hanoi People’s Committee as a craft village tourist point. The noteworthy feature of the craft village, according to Thang, is that households don’t work independently but are links of a single lacquer workshop.

“While Phuc Am makes artistic products to honor folk gods or ancestors, Ha Thai lacquerware honors the beauty of everyday objects, which are made with high artistic skills,” he said.

According to Ta Anh Dung from Phuc Cuong Lacquer Company, previously, there were not many visitors to the village. But nowadays, as the village develops into a craft village to receive foreign travelers, local craftsmen will prepare more suitable products.

Most of the products made are large, which makes it difficult to carry abroad, and they cannot be sold as souvenirs. 

To disseminate the original values of the two craft villages to tourists, especially foreign travelers, the Hanoi Tourism Department and Thuong Tinh People’s Committee have recently cooperated to organize a tour to visit Duyen Thai Handcraft Village.

This is a tourism promotion product within the framework of the program on turning tourism into one of the major activities of socio-economic development in Duyen Thai commune, and the Hanoi Tourism Department’s program on improving the quality of tourism products.

According to Tran Trung Hieu, deputy director of the Hanoi Tourism Department, Hanoi has decided that the entire itinerary of the unique experiential tour associated with the values ​​of heritage - relics and craft villages located on the route that goes through three locations of Thanh Tri, Chuong My and Phu Xuyen must be completed by this year end or early next year.

Vu Van Tuyen, CEO of Travelogy, commented that the products created by Duyen Thai craft village are not just tangible objects, but also bear heritage, cultural and historical values. Both Phuc Am and Ha Thai meet the requirements for tourism sustainable development.

For many years, travel firms have been struggling to find products for city tours. They have to design many different destinations for one tour as some craft villages are not open regularly. 

Travelogy serves many groups from France to Hanoi and can only bring tourists to neighboring areas such as Bac Giang and Bac Ninh. However, some craft villages only work in certain time of the year, and travelers cannot see with their eyes how craftsmen create products.

There were not many choices for city tours, except for familiar destinations of Thay Pagoda, Tay Phuong Pagoda, Chuong Village, Thach Xa, Bat Trang and Chang Son. But with the new destination of Duyen Thai, travel firms will have more high-quality products, while the destination is not too far from Hanoi.

“Votive paper and lacquer are two separate products, but they can be combined to create an attractive tour for foreign travelers,” Tuyen said.

Thuong Tin district is considered a center of craft villages, with 126 villages, including 48 traditional craft villages.

Ngoc Ha