Which city is surrounded by rivers on all four sides, the largest river where the largest naval battle in Vietnamese history took place?

Located in the downstream area of the Thai Binh River system flowing into the sea, since ancient times, Hai Phong has been a fertile land with abundant fresh water for residents to live.

In the whole area, the city has more than 50 large and small rivers, including 16 main rivers with a total length of over 300km with famous ones such as: Da Bac-Bach Dang River, Cam River, Lach Tray River, Van Uc River, Thai Binh River...

Looking back at the past, the rivers in Hai Phong are all “witnesses” containing many extremely important meanings about the history, culture and economy of the city.

In the past, female general Le Chan chose the fertile alluvial land along the riverbank to reclaim and establish a village, the precursor to the formation of Hai Phong city.

In 938, the Bach Dang River and the battle of wooden stakes that will forever be remembered with the victory of King Ngo Quyen ended the domination of the North.

Also on that river, once again in 1288, the Tran Dynasty king and his subjects conducted the largest naval battle in history to repel the Yuan-Mongol army.

As for the Cam River, starting from the simple but bustling Ninh Hai wharf with boats on and under the wharf, it has now become a flow along a large and modern seaport system.

Bach Dang River Estuary, Hai Phong City. Bach Dang River is a large river which is a branch of Kinh Mon River flowing into the sea at Nam Trieu Estuary, which is the boundary between Hai Phong and Quang Ninh.

It can be said that for centuries, the city and people of Hai Phong have been very familiar with the winding rivers, living and changing every day along the rivers.

Today, the city continuously promotes the exploitation of the potential and advantages of the rivers in the area, using them as a foundation to develop many socio-economic fields.

It is worth mentioning that the river system in Hai Phong has many advantages in developing logistics services related to inland waterways.

The city is the only locality in the North that has connections between all types of transport: sea, inland waterway, road, rail and air.

There are few places like Hai Phong where goods can be easily transferred between modes of transport from waterway to road, rail and vice versa quickly. Currently, Hai Phong has 16 inland waterway ports and 215 inland waterway wharves.

According to the planning of Hai Phong City People's Committee on the development of inland waterway port system in the area, inland waterway port clusters are planned to be built and developed along important river routes including: Cam River, Van Uc River, Lach Tray River, Da Bac River, Bach Dang River... with the goal of reaching about 400 ports by 2030.

At the same time, by 2030, the volume of goods through inland waterway ports could reach nearly 44 million tons/year.

Regarding container transportation via inland waterways in Hai Phong, the output in 2021 reached more than 83 thousand TEUs.

With the advantage of having rivers located in the city, close to industrial parks and areas with many factories, Hai Phong's enterprises can actively use inland waterway transportation to significantly reduce logistics costs and at the same time reduce pressure on road transport routes.

Besides economic fields, Hai Phong city is strongly exploiting the potential of rivers in urban construction and development.

When bridges connecting the two banks of the river were continuously inaugurated such as Binh Bridge, Hoang Van Thu Bridge, Vo Nguyen Giap Bridge... Hai Phong city quickly expanded.

Typically, on the other side of Hoang Van Thu bridge, a new Bac Song Cam urban area with many important political and social works of the city has been planned for implementation, which will certainly bring positive changes to the lives of people in the area.

Furthermore, the city has paid attention to the improvement of inner-city rivers such as Tam Bac River, with constructions and riverside areas built to create landscape highlights, aiming to become public places, walking streets... serving residents and tourists.

Along with the city's projects, large enterprises continuously invest and develop high-class, modern urban areas next to the city's rivers such as Vinhomes Imperia, Hoang Huy Riverside, Waterfront, Vinhomes Marina...

Each project has a unique, synchronous architectural design, making the most of the terrain of the rivers, contributing to creating a very impressive landscape.

It is hard to recognize that the alluvial areas along the river, which used to have only dilapidated houses, wharves, factories, etc., have now become the dream apartments and villas of the people.

In the world, there are many large cities with modern urban areas, but the cities that leave a captivating impression always have poetic rivers such as the Venice River (Italy), St. Petersburg (Russia), Paris (France), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bangkok (Thailand) or in Vietnam, there is the Perfume River in Hue or the Han River in Da Nang.

“Hai Phong is surrounded by rivers”, this poem and song is deeply imprinted in the hearts of every Hai Phong citizen as a source of pride and love for the rivers flowing around the city.

In the future, rivers will certainly continue to be a source of motivation and a solid support for the city to continue to develop both economically, socially and in terms of urban landscape.

Hai Phong people will continue to live along the rivers and wharves as they have for hundreds of years, but these rivers will have a modern, splendid image that changes every day.

Source: https://danviet.vn/thanh-pho-nao-bon-mat-giap-song-song-lon-nhat-dien-ra-tran-thuy-chien-lon-nhat-lich-su-viet-nam-20241011101553998.htm