Recently, anyone who has had the opportunity to visit Vinh Long cannot help but be amazed by the ancient beauty, covered by the color of time, of the red brick and ceramic "kingdom" reflecting itself on the Thay Cai canal and Co Chien river. In the 1980s, the whole region had nearly 3,000 brick kilns stretching nearly 30 km in the districts of Long Ho and Mang Thit operating all year round.
The people here have the technique of firing bricks using rice husk as fuel. Thousands of designs with different styles are created by the talented hands of craftsmen, especially ceramic brick products with a characteristic red color from clay creating a unique feature that cannot be found anywhere else. These products have been exported to foreign markets and are favored by consumers.
However, since around 2010, when the technology was innovated from circular kilns to continuous kilns, and the production process was improved to be more environmentally friendly, due to high production costs and low output prices, brick kilns encountered many difficulties, and their scale and operating capacity were no longer as large as before. In just the past 10 years, more than 1,000 brick kilns have been demolished, the rest were damaged and at risk of being demolished...
In order to preserve and develop the traditional brick and pottery craft combined with tourism development, contributing to the preservation of traditional cultural values of the community, Vinh Long province has approved a project to provide specific support for the preservation of local brick and pottery kilns for the entire heritage area of about 3,060 hectares in four communes of My An, My Phuoc, Nhon Phu, Hoa Tinh of Mang Thit district, making the "Kingdom of Red Pottery" a tourism product and a destination on the regional tourism map.
The project's objective is to promote the unique advantages of Vinh Long province in the Mekong Delta region such as: culture, typical cuisine, river trade in the ecological landscape of the garden. The ceramic brick village also demonstrates the spirit of hard work, creativity, and the passion of the next generation who want to preserve a traditional craft village in this land.
According to experts, a locality that follows a strategy of differentiating its tourism products must always strive to become “unique”; it must provide product attributes that make tourists feel that this product is only available at that location. Therefore, to be able to implement a differentiation strategy is a long-term process with great effort.
“Mang Thit Contemporary Heritage” is one of the craft villages, a distinct tourist highlight of the Mekong Delta. This is the process of positioning products in the perception of tourists, helping a province’s tourism products become more special and competitive. Because of the unique values of tourism, in recent years, many provinces and cities in the region have begun to exploit and include traditional craft villages in tours and tourist routes.
Many craft villages have revived its value and created unforgettable impressions for tourists, such as in Dong Thap there is Dinh Yen mat weaving village, Ben Tre has My Long rice paper village, Tien Giang has Tan Trung - Go Cong Dong altar cabinet making village, Can Tho has Thai Long fish catching and roof weaving village... The attraction of craft villages is the rustic, simple landscapes associated with people who love their jobs, artisans with skillful hands create products that cannot be found anywhere else.
According to the Master Plan for Socio-Economic Development of the Mekong Delta Key Economic Zone in 2020 and Vision to 2030, developing competitive tourism products contributes to affirming the region's tourism brand on the basis of maximizing the advantages of natural conditions and cultural characteristics. This is consistent with the spirit of Resolution 08-NQ/TW (dated January 16, 2017) of the Politburo on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector; which clearly demonstrates the policy of sustainable development on the basis of preserving and promoting the fine cultural heritage values of the nation.
Heritage is a treasure bestowed by nature, or the crystallization of creative labor that our ancestors have painstakingly created from generation to generation; it is a valuable resource that creates the unique brand and image of each locality and region.
Knowing how to restore, use and promote the value of "relics" not only preserves traditional culture, but also creates attraction and leverage for tourism economic development, contributing to creating livelihoods for people.
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