Identifying tourism development as a key goal, over the past years, Hanoi City, Son Tay Town and the people of Duong Lam ancient village have made great efforts to develop tourism, preserve and restore ancient houses, learn how to make tourism products, and initially many households have deployed tourism services and have stable incomes.
Tourism is the key target
Mr. Nguyen Dang Thao, Head of the Management Board of Duong Lam Ancient Village Relics (Son Tay town) said that as one of the villages with a long historical tradition, Duong Lam is also a place to preserve the typical tangible and intangible cultural values of the Northern Delta region, with many ancient houses and architectural works that are hundreds of years old.
The structure of the village has its own unique features such as the central villages are adjacent to each other, the conventional boundaries between the villages are often the village roads, wells or temples, there is no closed division by bamboo hedges or fields.
These are the basic cultural values that give breath to the "living heritage" of Duong Lam.
According to Mr. Nguyen Dang Thao, currently, the number of tourists coming to Duong Lam is quite large and diverse. In addition to groups of tourists studying archeology, history... every year, many domestic and international tourists come to visit and learn about regional culture, experience traditional crafts, experience local agricultural production activities...
Identifying tourism development as a key goal in the socio-economic development of the town, in recent years, Son Tay town has issued many documents to lead and direct all levels and sectors to effectively implement the work of preserving and promoting the value of ancient village relics. Organizing training courses on implementing the Planning for preserving, restoring and promoting the value of Duong Lam ancient village relics, developing tourism for households at the relics, managing construction order, training and fostering professional skills for human resources working in tourism in the area.
In addition, in coordination with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the Hanoi Department of Tourism and travel companies, many training courses were organized for people in ancient villages on how to make tourism products to serve tourists, and the service model and homestay tourism were deployed to families with ancient houses. Initially, many households have implemented tourism services and have stable income.
By the end of 2022, there were more than 200 households in the 5 villages of the relic providing tourism services and participating in creating products to serve tourists.
In September 2019, the ancient village relic in Duong Lam was recognized by the City People's Committee as a city-level tourist destination and in November 2019, the Town People's Committee held a ceremony to receive and announce the decision on the tourist destination and at the same time launched the Son Tay tourism website.
Duong Lam Ancient Village (Son Tay town) is a densely populated relic complex, with 50 valuable relics, many of which have been ranked by the state (including 7 national relics, 2 relics and 10 ancient houses ranked at the provincial level), in addition to preserving nearly 100 ancient houses of special value over 100 years old and nearly 1,000 traditional rural houses in the Northern Delta; 5 villages in the ancient village relic area have nearly 1,500 households, with more than 6,000 people living there.
Ambassadors and international guests experience the traditional Tet atmosphere in 2023 at Duong Lam Ancient Village - Photo: VGP
Preserving and promoting the value of ancient village relics, creating livelihoods for people
In 2014, Hanoi issued the Project "Investing in the restoration, preservation and promotion of the value of ancient village relics in Duong Lam commune"; in which, supporting and investing in 15 contents such as investing in the restoration of degraded ranked relics, investing in the restoration of degraded ancient houses, investing in the preservation and promotion of the value of ancient village relics with contents such as designing typical house models, supporting households with high-rise buildings to lower their height and supporting loan interest rates for households with the need to build and renovate houses to suit the landscape... with a total budget of over 456,000 billion VND, of which the investment in the resettlement land project (dispersing the population of the ancient village) is 258 billion VND.
Based on the above Decision, the town has actively directed relevant units to organize the implementation of the Project. Up to now, 13 projects have been invested in infrastructure construction and restoration of relics in Duong Lam commune. Support contents for people such as free design documents for construction permits and consulting on typical house designs in accordance with the planning have been highly agreed and supported by people at the relics. Up to now, 243 house designs have been designed for free for people with a total cost of 895 million VND.
The town also pays attention to investment. In the period of 2016-2020, the City and Town have paid attention to and allocated resources to invest in 14 projects with a total allocated capital of 152,000 billion VND.
The completed projects have been effective in preserving and promoting the value of the relics, and have been welcomed and supported by the people at the relics; the projects to restore and embellish relics (such as Cam Thinh communal house, Ngo Quyen Temple and Tomb, wells, etc.), and degraded ancient houses have been promptly implemented, contributing to preserving and promoting the value of the relics in today's modern life.
Currently, these relic sites and ancient houses are both places for community cultural activities and attractions that attract a large number of tourists to come and learn, research and experience; especially, most of the ancient houses restored in the Project are currently organizing tourism activities to serve tourists, contributing to creating more economic income for families, solving jobs for many local workers, thereby raising people's awareness of preserving ancient houses.
The project of designing 20 typical house models with the orientation of construction according to the planning and the content of supporting the design documents for construction permits for people at the relic site has also been supported and positively received. These supporting contents have contributed significantly to the management of construction order according to the planning at the relic site, changing people's awareness of applying for construction permits (previously, when building, people were not aware of doing the procedures for applying for permits due to difficulties in design costs). After having the content of supporting the design costs according to the Project, now all households at the relic site when constructing are aware of doing the procedures for applying for construction permits according to regulations.
To implement the project of economic restructuring and creating livelihoods for the people, the town has focused on directing the development of the Project of agricultural economic development associated with trade and services in the ancient village in Duong Lam, encouraging economic sectors and enterprises to invest in developing types of services and tourism to effectively exploit the values of the ancient village relic in Duong Lam.
For example, implementing a number of projects such as: Preserving and restoring the Mia chicken breed, Cam Lam tea, sweet potatoes, making soy sauce and soy sauce products, traditional confectionery products such as peanut candy, sausage candy...; building a point to introduce and sell OCOP products at the gate of Mong Phu village, Duong Lam commune.
In this area, craft village products and specialties of Son Tay town are displayed and sold. The OCOP product introduction, display and sale point at Mong Phu village gate area is operated and operates effectively, contributing to establishing a domestic goods supply chain to serve people; creating opportunities to connect businesses and customers; and at the same time supporting Vietnamese businesses to consume and develop products in the domestic market.
In addition, the town is currently developing and implementing a program to support people in Duong Lam to develop production and build a certified brand for soy sauce products and Duong Lam sticky rice cakes to provide to people and tourists.
One of the traditional houses in Duong Lam ancient village - Photo: VGP/Gia Huy
Need to continue policies to create livelihoods for people
However, in the process of organizing the implementation of conservation and promotion of the value of the ancient village relic in Duong Lam, there are still limitations that have not been overcome, such as the majority of people at the relic have not enjoyed and have economic benefits from tourism development, leading to difficulties in propaganda work, and have not encouraged people's awareness of self-preservation and promotion of the value of the relic.
The number of tourists visiting the relics is still limited, the connection of tours is not synchronized, fragmented, spontaneous; tourism infrastructure such as parking lots, reception areas, exhibition areas, signboard systems are still lacking, tourism products and services are still few and poor; cultural environment, the behavior between people and tourists is still unprofessional...
Coordination of tourist attractions in neighboring areas to build tours to visit ancient villages associated with relics in the town and surrounding areas is still limited and not diverse.
In addition, the system of village roads, green trees, bamboo groves, etc., an important factor contributing to the landscape of the relic, is also being degraded, narrowed or gradually lost. The system of ponds and lakes creating environmental landscapes in the relic area is being polluted due to the wastewater drainage system of residential areas being discharged directly every day, greatly affecting the lives and health of the people, destroying the landscape of the relic...
Duong Lam Ancient Village has the unique characteristics of being a "living relic", so the management and conservation process still faces many difficulties. In order to continue to effectively manage, restore, embellish and promote the value of the relic, Mr. Nguyen Dang Thao proposed that the City direct the City's Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Project Management Board to speed up the progress of the ST4 urban subdivision planning so that the Town has a basis for investment, management and conservation to promote the value of the ancient village relic in Duong Lam.
In addition, it is recommended that the City consider continuing to issue the Project "Investing in restoration, conservation and promotion of the value of the ancient village relic of Duong Lam commune in the period of 2023-2028" to replace the 2014 project that has expired and have policies to support vocational training, agricultural and industrial promotion to create livelihoods for people so that they can live in the relic, thereby contributing to the conservation and promotion of the value of the relic.
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