Enjoy the colorful West Lake picture
With a length of about 17km along the lake, the roads around West Lake have long been an attractive destination for the people of the capital. Not only beautiful, cool, convenient, but many of these places are also areas with impressive sightseeing, entertainment and culinary destinations. Along Thanh Nien, Nguyen Dinh Thi, Trich Sai streets... in the afternoon, it is easy to see activities such as jogging, cycling, swimming and boating of the people. This shows that the road along West Lake is not only a place to enjoy the breeze but also a place associated with the rhythm of people's lives, a place to eat, play, gather, suitable for all ages in all seasons of the year.
On summer days like now, the roads along West Lake are often blooming with flowers such as Royal Poinciana, Royal Poinciana, and Butterfly Flower... in full bloom. Not to mention, this is also the time to watch the most beautiful sunset of the year, the brilliant colors of flowers and leaves combined with sunny and windy sunset afternoons make many people often joke that "going through the heat of summer without once going to West Lake to watch the sunset is a waste of a lifetime". This is also a familiar place for young people to take virtual photos, "check-in" or for photographers to capture the beautiful sunset scene of West Lake with their cameras.
Not only does West Lake have a breathtaking sunset, it also attracts visitors with its wonderful beauty at every moment of the day. From early morning, West Lake has its own beauty with many simple, gentle and profound emotions. At night, West Lake has a different color, the sparkling color of the city lights reflecting on the immense lake surface. Regardless of day or night, West Lake always brings each visitor special and unforgettable experiences.
Developing public transport for tourism
Not only attracting people living and working in the capital, West Lake is also a favorite destination for domestic and foreign tourists when traveling to Hanoi. It can be seen that the role of the roads along West Lake in tourism development is very important. Not only converging natural beauty, around this area there are also a variety of cultural and entertainment activities.
Located along West Lake are ancient villages such as Nhat Tan flower village, Quang Ba flower village, Nghi Tam kumquat village, Yen Thai do paper craft village, Ngu Xa bronze casting village... along with a dense system of historical and cultural relics such as: Van Nien pagoda, Tao Sach pagoda, Kim Lien pagoda, Quan Thanh temple, Ba Danh pagoda... In particular, on the peninsula and island to the east of West Lake, two famous relics, Tay Ho palace and Tran Quoc pagoda, are still preserved intact, attracting a large number of tourists to visit, sightsee and worship at the pagoda.
However, currently, the famous craft villages of Tay Ho district have not attracted tourists to visit, affecting the promotion of traditional craft village values and brands to domestic and foreign tourists. Pagodas and temples around West Lake also mainly attract local visitors to worship, worship, and sightsee, but there are not many tourists coming to visit and study historical and cultural relics. In the same situation, culinary establishments have not had a strong influence on tourists from far away, but mainly domestic tourists and neighboring provinces.
Those limitations partly come from the fact that traffic around the West Lake road is not really convenient. For people in the capital, using personal vehicles to go around West Lake, stopping at this and that point is very easy. But for tourists, especially international tourists, this is extremely difficult, leading to the situation that the number of domestic tourists traveling to Tay Ho district is much higher than that of international tourists.
Faced with this situation, in recent years, Hanoi has focused on developing public transport on the routes along West Lake, considering this an important factor to improve the living environment and develop tourism in this area. Since 2018, Hanoi has piloted the first double-decker open-top bus (City Tour) to serve the development of tourism in the capital. With a system of explanations in 10 languages (Vietnamese, English, French...) on the GPS platform, the content about historical sites and streets on the journey has contributed to helping the group members learn more about the history and culture of the thousand-year-old capital Hanoi. Starting from the Hanoi Opera House, the City Tour route passes through a series of famous tourist attractions in the city, in which visitors have the opportunity to pass through Tran Quoc Pagoda and Thanh Nien Street to explore and enjoy the beauty of West Lake.
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The City Tour bus gives visitors the opportunity to see the roads along West Lake. (Source: City Tour) |
Recently, on November 18, 2023, Hanoi continued to add the City Tour 03 "Thang Long scenic spot" route with a single-decker open-top minibus, capacity of 20 seats, equipped with a multilingual automatic commentary system, carrying out the task of transporting passengers to visit and explore historical sites and famous landscapes in the heart of the Old Quarter and Hanoi Capital. Choosing a vehicle with a maximum capacity of only 20 seats has overcome the disadvantage of the previous 2 City Tour routes, which is that they cannot go through the small streets of the Capital, while these streets have space and many beautiful landscapes.
Notably, City Tour 03 has a different itinerary from the previous 2 City Tours. City Tour 3 has many stops at cultural sites of West Lake such as Tran Quoc Pagoda, seaplane dock, Vong Thi Temple, Tao Sach Pagoda, Kim Lien Pagoda. In particular, the itinerary almost goes around West Lake, giving visitors the opportunity to admire the roads along West Lake such as Yen Phu, Thanh Nien, Nguyen Dinh Thi, Trich Sai, Lac Long Quan, Ve Ho, Nhat Chieu, Sen Tay Ho, To Ngoc Van.
For Hanoians, the image of the prominent red single-decker and double-decker buses taking tourists through the streets of the capital has become familiar over time. It is not an exaggeration to call this one of the capital's tourist "specialties", an impressive highlight for many visitors when visiting Hanoi. Not to mention, City Tour is very flexible in offering many ticket prices and experience time frames because many tourists want to get off to visit a tourist attraction and then catch the bus later, meeting their exploration needs.
Thuy Linh (24 years old, Bac Ninh) said she had been to Hanoi several times but had never had the opportunity to visit West Lake, partly because West Lake was so large that she did not know where to go to visit, and partly because it was inconvenient to get there. This time, when she came to Hanoi, she learned that there was a new City Tour route with reasonable prices, so she bought a ticket to experience it. “The first time I visited West Lake was wonderful, I got to go through roads that I had only heard about but had never had the chance to visit. I was a little sad because I took the evening trip so I could not explore the famous tourist attractions here. In return, I had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of West Lake in the evening with a beautiful view from above. The bus was also equipped with charming conical hats for tourists to “check-in”, I think this is a great way to promote the image of Vietnam tourism. If I have a chance to return to Hanoi, I will definitely take this bus route again. Next time, I will choose the 4-5 o'clock trip to watch the sunset at West Lake," Thuy Linh shared.
In addition to the City Tour bus, visitors can also choose public bicycle services in the capital at a very reasonable cost. Not to mention there are up to 79 stations with 1,000 vehicles, in 6 inner-city districts, helping visitors to travel conveniently. In particular, Tay Ho district is one of the 6 pilot districts, using public bicycles to visit West Lake promises to be an interesting and memorable experience for visitors during their days traveling in Hanoi.
The poetic Quang An Street - one of the streets along West Lake has been listed in the top 30 most interesting streets in the world in 2024 by Time Out. Quang An Street is more than 1km long running along West Lake with many interesting restaurants and cafes. Although it is famous for being a bustling, vibrant place thanks to the surrounding shops and the Quang An night flower market area, the street still brings a sense of relaxation and peace to visitors because of its prime location next to West Lake. In addition, this street is located near many famous landscapes and cultural relics in Hanoi such as Kim Lien Pagoda, Hoang An Pagoda, Pho Linh Pagoda or Tay Ho Palace.
Source: https://baophapluat.vn/thu-vi-nhung-con-duong-ven-ho-tay-post517123.html
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